PERFORMANCE OF UKRAINIAN POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE UKRAINIAN NATION-BUILDING 1989-2021: THE ROLE OF CULTURE, INFORMAL AND CATCHING-UP INSTITUTIONS

1989-2021 were formative years for the conteporary iteration of the Ukrainian nation-building. As the nation’s formal political instutions were established and stood the test of performance in routine and emergency, structural and systemic problems in their performance manifested themselves. It is common knowledge that the foreign intervention is causal to Ukraine’s victimization by war, population exodus and impoverishment. There remains a puzzle: what had caused the state of the Ukrainian political institutions that the foreign belligerent perceived as opportune to deliver public evils upon the Ukrainian people? How could Ukrainian political institutions be strengthened so as to better deliver public goods and safeguard against public evils? Rigorous analysis of the persistent and consequential problems in the Ukrainian political institutions and their potential co-determinants could contribute towards production of knowledge, utile for the future national-building. Numerous practicioners and social scientists in the field continue to point to cultural and informal-institutional factors as possible co-determinants. This research uses a qualitative, multi-method design in the interpretative paradigm of political science (Rhodes 2016; Schatz 2009a; 2009b; Wedeen 2002, 2009, Bevir 2013, 2024; Schwartz-Shea & Yanow 2007, 2014 et al) in testing this hypothesis. Twelve Ukrainian political-institutional cases are analyzed including the Constitution, the legal, judicial and law enforcement systems, the Parliament–President–Cabinet triangle and policy lobbying. The data is gathered through combination of semi-structured and informal interviews, uninterrupted 17 years active participant observation as functionary of the Ukrainian government, textual and media analysis. Diverse perspectives are drawn from different categories of Ukrainian political and administrative actors and citizenry, across the political spectrum, regions, and sexes. The information is then analyzed using the traditional process tracing method (Collier, 2011; Ricks&Liu, 2018a, 2018b; Fairfield, 2013 et al). Attention is paid to aggregate effect of beliefs, values, norms, habits, affect, also of informal institutions (Ledeneva 2006, 2013; Helmke & Levitsky 2004). It is found that, counterbalancing the many virtues and productive culture of the Ukrainian people are few prevalent counterproductive traits: immoderate ignorance of essentials of government and economy, poor social awareness, lack of civility, good response to radical power relying on coercion and people’s apathy at domestic encroachment upon their vital interests. At the center of Ukrainian elite’s adaptation to that culture sits the informal institution I conceptualize as ‘Inverted Piracy’ / ‘Flying Fox’ model of politics and senior administration. Whereby incumbents remove their center of life’s interests from their original state that they govern to a foreign jurisdiction they make their new family home. Turning their government service to their native country into an expeditionary mission with less ‘skin in the game’, they seek escape from the outcomes of the very policies they help generate and implement, and the culture thereby forged. Perspectives of catching-up institutions are investigated, that enable institutional trajectory towards more efficient formal political institutions, through initial improvement in politically consequencial culture. (Polterovich 2007, 2017). Anglo-american model of jury service, municipal self-government, civility networks, mass civic education and elite education in philosophy, politics and economics are found to hold that potential.