Problems of post-post-communism: Ukraine after the Orange Revolution

Abstract

Although Ukrainian democracy has made some progress since the 2004 Orange Revolution, significant problems remain. This article compares the difficulties facing post-Orange Revolution Ukraine to those encountered in East Central Europe in the early 1990s and maintains that Ukraine will have a harder time overcoming its challenges because its starting point and inheritances are different. That is, Ukrainian democracy must overcome many of the infirmities created during its initial decade of post-communism, and that these make establishing effective democratic governance in today's post-post-communist period arduous. Among the difficulties are designing effective institutions, managing the post-Orange Revolution coalition, removing entrenched corruption and weak respect for the rule of law, and coping with a less hospitable external environment. Events since the Orange Revolution bear out the argument that the events of 2004, while getting rid of a leadership with dubious democratic credentials, are merely the beginning of a process to bring a successful democratic government to Ukraine.