The Role of Centre–Periphery Relations in the 2004 Constitutional Reform in Ukraine

Abstract

The constitutional changes in Ukraine, which are aimed at making the political regime more democratic, can be successful only if they consider centre–periphery relations. The constitutional reform of 2004 was focused on dispersing power more equally between the central political actors in Kyiv. It completely overlooked the division of power between central and sub-state levels. As a result, centre–periphery relations were quickly unbalanced, which became one of the crucial challenges for the state-wide political regime. Contrary to the constitutional reform of 2004, more recent constitutional initiatives of central political actors have paid attention to centre–periphery relations and suggested dispersing more power to sub-state levels, thereby seeking to restabilize the Ukrainian polity as a whole.