Electoral Reform and Legislative Behavior in Post-Communist Ukraine

Abstract

This paper examines the decision by the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada to introduce a pure proportional representation system for the 2006 legislative election. I argue that both office-seeking and policy-seeking explanations cannot account for this change. Instead, we need to understand how the issues of party control over legislators and the power of the presidency impacted electoral system preferences. I show that many of the parties, primarily center parties, that succeeded in the single-member district tier of the mixed-member majoritarian system faced difficulties controlling their deputies’ behaviors. In addition, preferences over the relationship between the president and the legislature influenced the positions of both the center and right parties.