Regional Elections in Ukraine in 2006 and 2010

Abstract

Elections can contribute to both democratic and authoritarian developments. Literatures on new democracies most often investigate general elections. This paper shows that the study of regional contests adds a crucial dimension to the understanding of regime trajectories, as well as parties and party systems. The objects of investigation are multi-level election in Ukraine – a post-communist state in Eastern Europe outside the European Union. The aim is to explain why parties' vote shares at simultaneous and non-simultaneous elections are fluid and why major frontrunners at general elections perform worse at regional contests in the same regions. Also, the paper shows what makes general and regional electoral arenas mutually dependent. Finally, it explains how regional elections affect the trajectory of democratisation in Ukraine.

Key Words:

• Multi-level voting
• regional elections
• Ukraine

Acknowledgements

This paper presents research results of the Marie Curie project ‘Territorial politics in Ukraine during transition from authoritarian rule' (PIIF-GA-2009-255522), generously funded by the European Commission (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF). It was presented at the 4th International Congress of the French-speaking Associations of Political Science on 21 April 2011 in Brussels. I am grateful to Dr Ailsa Henderson, Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, for her valuable comments on the early version of this paper. I am indebted to two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their thought-provoking questions and stimulating comments. Last, but not the least – many thanks to Dr Stuart MacDonald for his help with creating electoral maps using the Geographical Information Systems software at EDINA, the University of Edinburgh.

Notes

In this paper regional elections mean elections to the Crimean Parliament, 24 regional assemblies, Kyiv and Sevastopil city assemblies.