Decentralization and Multilevel Elections in Ukraine: Reform Dynamics and Party Politics in 2010-2021

ISBN-13: 9783838217000 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022

Opis

The post-2014 decentralization policy is consolidating the center-periphery relations in Ukraine. Already before 2014, domestic policymakers had been drafting proposals for local amalgamation and an increase of regional authority. Before the 2020 watershed subnational elections, only the local amalgamation policy was completed, however. A significant repercussion of the post-2014 decentralization reform has been a sharp decrease in congruence of the shares of competing national parties in the parliamentary, regional, and municipal electoral arenas. On the other hand, the party system has, at the municipal level, become less fragmented. Regional councils have, in contrast, remained highly fragmented. The outcomes of the indirect elections of regional councils' heads have benefitted Ukraine's ruling party. Methodologically, the book illustrates the added value of investigating elections from a multilevel perspective. It contributes to the comparative exploration of party systems change over time, and constitutes a case study of more general patterns of interaction between municipal decentralization and political development in democratizing states.

Recenzje

"Ukraine's 2014 law on local government was among the most ambitious reforms in the country's three decades of independence. Valentyna Romanova provides a detailed analysis of the political sources and consequences of the law. She shows how the increased power of local governments has altered electoral behavior and the party system across the country, as local party politics have become partly delinked from the national level. The consequences that Dr. Romanova demonstrates will have significant effects on politics and democratization in Ukraine. This is a valuable book for those interested in Ukrainian politics or in local government reform." Paul D'Anieri, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of California, Riverside, USA

O autorze

Dr. Kimitaka Matsuzato is Professor of Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo.