Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The paper will consist of a quantitative study on the effects of the Orange Revolution on Ukrainian voting preference, with a special emphasis on the possible rise of ethnic based voter preferences.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper contributes to the studies of committee roles in newly established legislatures of Central/ Eastern Europe (ECE hereafter) and offers behavioral approach to assessing committee roles in legislative process. Committee studies usually assess committee roles based on their structural properties, such as sizes and powers. We offer a direct measure of committee influence by focusing on the influence that committees have on the legislative behavior manifested in the results of plenary voting. We also analyze factors that contribute to stronger or weaker committee roles. We bring evidence from the Ukrainian parliament – Verkhovna Rada – to examine committee roles through their influence on the results of voting on the plenary. We conclude that strong influence that Ukrainian committees have in legislative process are indicative of the VR developing as a strong legislative institution and playing independent roles in the Ukrainian policy process. The results also demonstrate that strong parties/ factions and a large range of ideologies do not necessarily lead to a weak committee system and a strong committee system can develop under these conditions. Among important factors that contribute to that are rules for committee leadership selection, relative sizes and strength of right and left factions, and constituency relations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: After the break-up of the Soviet Union the neighbouring Belarus and Ukraine have developed in quite a different way. While Belarus decided in favor of an unilateral orientation on Russia, Ukraine tried to achieve the status of an associated country from the European Union. Consequently, Belarus exploited the antagonistic elements of the EU-Russian relationship in order to ensure Russian subsidies. Ukraine, on the contrary, was interested in a more harmonious development of the EU-Russian relationship in order to get support for its European ambitions. The paper analyzes how the foreign policy strategies of both countries are influenced by the changes in the EU-Russian relationship. It asks, wether the rapprochement of EU and Russia leads to a joint policy towards Belarus and Ukraine and how both countries reacted to this development. Another point of interest in this context is, how both countries are affected by the consequences of the EU eastern enlargement. The paper tries to elaborate to what extent both countries are able to realize their own positions considering their position between Brussels and Moscow. Finally, are the different political players in Belarus and Ukraine interested in the intensification of the EU-Russian cooperation or do they consider it as a new hegemonic structure neglecting the position of the small western CIS states?

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Recent and extensive widening policies of the EU positioned the problem of European identity centrally in the organisation’s discourse. The key to the solution to the above problem is often seen in establishing geopolitical, cultural, historical, linguist

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the influence of local culture and international funding on the construction of frames in the Ukrainian women’s movement. A growing body of research investigating the positive and negative effects of international funding on local NGOs in post-Soviet states demonstrates that donor priorities and local priorities do not always coincide. Social movement theorists predict that activists will intentionally create culturally resonate frames to increase their potency or effectiveness among targeted audiences. Ukrainian activists must negotiate the local cultural context as they simultaneously attempt to appeal to foreign donors who are often their primary and most reliable source of funding. I draw on interviews with 25 women’s NGOs in two Ukrainian cities (Kharkov and L’viv) with contrasting cultural environments to try to determine the interaction of cultural context and international funding and their resulting impact on the frames women activists choose to create.