Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-zc66z Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-07T02:49:55.459Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

One Ukraine or Many? Regionalism in Ukraine and Its Political Consequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Lowell W. Barrington  and
Erik S. Herron
Lowell W. Barrington
Affiliation:
Marquette University, Department of Political Science, USA, [email protected]
Erik S. Herron
Affiliation:
University of Kansas, Department of Political Science, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Intra-state regional differences are a central topic in the study of European and Eurasian politics. In Ukraine, regional differences have proven to be powerful predictors of mass attitudes and political behavior. But what does the “regional factor” in Ukrainian politics represent? Is it simply the result of compositional effects, or are the regional differences more than just a sum of other demographic factors correlated with geographic divisions? When analyzing regional divisions as an explanatory variable, what are the implications of employing different regional frameworks? In this article, we demonstrate how geographic divisions in the country hold up even when others factors—such as ethnicity and language use—are controlled for. As part of this inquiry, we compare the results of three competing regional frameworks for Ukraine: one with two regions, one with four regions and one with eight regions. While the eight-region framework is uncommon in studies of Ukraine, the decision to examine eight regions is supported by historical, economic and demographic arguments, as well as by the results of the statistical analyses presented in this article. Scholars who have focused on fewer regions in Ukraine may have underestimated the effects of regional differences and missed interesting stories about intra-state variation in Ukrainian attitudes and voting behavior. The results of this study carry important implications not only for the study of Ukraine but also for those interested in intra-state regional divisions across Europe and Eurasia.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 53 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arel, Dominique. 1992. “Federalism and the Language Factor in Ukraine,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Phoenix, 19–22 November.Google Scholar
Arel, Dominique. 1995. “Language Policies in Independent Ukraine: Towards One or Two State Languages?” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 597–622.Google Scholar
Arel, Dominique. 1998. “Ukraine: The Muddle Way,” Current History, October, pp. 342–346.Google Scholar
Barrington, Lowell. 1997. “The Geographic Component of Mass Attitudes in Ukraine.” Post-Soviet Geography and Economics, Vol. 38, No. 10, pp. 601–614.Google Scholar
Barrington, Lowell. 2001a. “Russian-Speakers in Ukraine and Kazakhstan: ‘Nationality,’ ‘Population,’ or Neither?” Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 129–158.Google Scholar
Barrington, Lowell. 2001b. “Stereotypes of Russians and Ukrainians in Ukraine: Views of the Ethnic ‘Other,’ and Their Implications,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, New York, April.Google Scholar
Barrington, Lowell W. 2002. “Examining Rival Theories of Demographic Influences on Political Support: The Power of Regional, Ethnic, and Linguistic Divisions in Ukraine,” European Journal of Political Research, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Barrington, Lowell W. and Herron, Erik S. 2001. “Understanding Public Opinion in Post-Communist States: The Effects of Statistical Assumptions on Substantive Results.” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 573–594.Google Scholar
Barrington, Lowell W. and Herron, Erik S. 2002. “The Political Consequences of Regionalism in Ukraine: How the Regions You Choose Affect the Answer You Get,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, New York, April.Google Scholar
Birch, Sarah. 1998. “Party System Formation and Voting Behaviour in the Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections of 1994,” in Taras Kuzio, ed., Contemporary Ukraine: Dynamics of Post-Soviet Transformation (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe).Google Scholar
Birch, Sarah. 2000. Elections and Democratization in Ukraine (New York: St. Martin's Press).Google Scholar
Birch, Sarah. 2002. “The Presidential Election in Ukraine, October 1999,” Electoral Studies, Vol. 21, pp. 339–363.Google Scholar
Birch, Sarah. 1995. “The Ukrainian Parliamentary and Presidential Elections of 1994,” Electoral Studies, Vol. 14, pp. 93–99.Google Scholar
Bremmer, Ian. 1994. “The Politics of Ethnicity: Russians in the New Ukraine,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 261–284.Google Scholar
Burns, Peter and Gimpel, James G. 2000. “Economic Insecurity, Prejudicial Stereotypes, and Public Opinion on Immigration Policy,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 115, No. 2, pp. 201–225.Google Scholar
Cox, Leonard J. and Schoppa, Karen. 2002. “Interaction Effects in Mixed Member Systems: Theory and Evidence from Germany, Japan and Italy,” Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 35, pp. 1027–1053.Google Scholar
Craumer, Peter R. and Clem, James I. 1999. “Ukraine's Emerging Electoral Geography: A Regional Analysis of the 1998 Parliamentary Elections,” Post-Soviet Geography and Economics, Vol. 40, pp. 1–26.Google Scholar
Cybriwsky, Roman. 1992. “The Ukrainian Springtime,” Focus, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 31–33.Google Scholar
D'Anieri, Paul. 1998. “The Mitigation of Ethnic Conflict in Ukraine: The Mysterious Case of the State that Didn't Collapse,” paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, 31 August to 3 September.Google Scholar
D'Anieri, Paul, Kravchuk, Robert and Kuzio, Taras. 1999. Politics and Society in Ukraine (Boulder: Westview Press).Google Scholar
Dawson, Jane. 1997. “Ethnicity, Ideology and Geopolitics in Crimea,” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 427–444.Google Scholar
Dowley, Kathleen, Silver, Brian and Uuekula, Jaak. 1996. “Political Activism on the Eve of Estonia's Independence,” International Journal of Sociology, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 46–73.Google Scholar
Evans, Geoffrey and Whitefield, Stephen. 1995. “The Politics and Economics of Democratic Commitment: Support for Democracy in Transition Societies,” British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 25, pp. 85–514.Google Scholar
Friedrich, Robert J. 1982. “In Defense of Multiplicative Terms in Multiple Regression Equations,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 26, pp. 797–833.Google Scholar
Gee, Gretchen Knudso. 1995. “Geography, Nationality, and Religion in Ukraine: A Research Note,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 383–390.Google Scholar
Gubin, Sandra L. 1992. “The Urge to Divide and the Need to Cooperate: Ukraine, Russia and Issues in the Redefinition of Relations between the Former Soviet Republics,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Phoenix 19–22, November.Google Scholar
Henderson-King, Eaaron and Donna, Henderson-King. 1997. “In-Group Favoritism and Perceived Similarity: A Look at Russians’ Perceptions in the Post-Soviet Era,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 23, No. 10, pp. 1013–1021.Google Scholar
Herron, Erik with Paul Johnson. 2003. “It Doesn't Matter Who Votes, but Who Counts the Votes,” paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference, Chicago. <http:///www.ku.edu/~herron>..>Google Scholar
Herron, Erik and Nishikawa, Misa. 2001. “Contamination Effects and the Number of Parties in Mixed-Superposition Electoral Systems,” Electoral Studies, Vol. 20, pp. 63–86.Google Scholar
Hesli, Vicki. 1995. “Public Support for the Devolution of Power in Ukraine: Regional Patterns,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 19–21.Google Scholar
Hesli, Vicki L. and Miller, Arthur H. 1993. “The Gender Base of Institutional Support in Lithuania, Ukraine, and Russia,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 505–532.Google Scholar
Holdar, Sven. 1995. “Torn between East and West: The Regional Factor in Ukrainian Politics,” Post-Soviet Geography, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 112–132.Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert. 1974. “Political Participation and Neighborhood Social Context,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 23, pp. 579–592.Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert and Sprague, John. 1993. “Citizens, Contexts, and Politics,” in Ada Finifter, ed., Political Science: The State of the Discipline II (Washington: American Political Science Association), pp. 281–304.Google Scholar
Jones, Mark P. 1999. “Electoral Laws and the Effective Number of Candidates in Presidential Elections,” Journal of Politics, Vol. 61, pp. 171–184.Google Scholar
Judd, Charles M., Bernadette, Park, Ryan, Carey S., Markus, Brauer and Kraus, Susan. 1995. “Stereotypes and Ethnocentrism: Diverging Interethnic Perceptions of African American and White American Youth,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 69, No. 3, pp. 460–481.Google Scholar
Karatnycky, A. “The Ukrainian Factor,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 71, No. 3, pp. 90–106.Google Scholar
Katchanovski, Ivan. “Regional Political Cleavages in Ukraine and Moldova,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, 30 August to 2 September.Google Scholar
King, Gary. 1986. “How Not to Lie with Statistics: Avoiding Common Mistakes in Quantitative Political Science,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 666–687.Google Scholar
Kubicek, Paul. 2000. “Regional Polarisation in Ukraine: Public Opinion, Voting and Legislative Behavior,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 52, pp. 295–317.Google Scholar
Kuzio, Taras. 1997. Ukraine under Kuchma: Political Reform, Economic Transformation and Security Policy in Independent Ukraine (New York: St. Martin's Press).Google Scholar
McAndrew, Francis T., Akande, Adebowale, Bridgestock, Ruth, Linda, Mealey, Gordon, Stephen, Scheib, Joanna, Akane-Adetoun, Bolanle E., Odewale, Funmi, Morakinyo, Asefon, Nyahete, Patricia and Mubvakure, Geradine. 2000. “A Multicultural Study of Stereotyping in English-Speaking Countries,” Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 140, No. 4, pp. 487–502.Google Scholar
Miller, Arthur H., Hesli, Vicki L., and Reisinger, William M. 1997. “Conceptions of Democracy among Mass and Elite in Post-Soviet Societies,” British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 27, pp. 157–190.Google Scholar
Melnyk, Ihor. 1992. “Natsionalny sklad naselennia ta movna situatsiya v Ukraini” (“The National Composition of the Population and Language Situation in Ukraine), Derzhavnist, No. 2, pp. 44–50.Google Scholar
Melvin, Neil. 1995. Russians beyond Russia: The Politics of National Identity (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs).Google Scholar
O'Loughlin, John O. 2001. “The Regional Factor in Contemporary Ukrainian Politics: Scale, Place, Space, or Bogus Effect?” Post-Soviet Geography and Economics, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 1–33.Google Scholar
Pirie, Paul S. 1996. “National Identity and Politics in Southern and Eastern Ukraine,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 48, No. 7, pp. 1079–1104.Google Scholar
Ponarin, Eduard. 2000. “The Prospects of Assimilation of the Russophone Populations in Estonia and Ukraine: A Reaction to David Laitin's Research,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 52, No. 8, pp. 1535–1541.Google Scholar
Poppe, Edwin and Hagendoorn, Louk. 2001. “Types of Identification among Russians in the ‘Near Abroad',” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 53, No. 1, pp. 57–71.Google Scholar
Rapawy, Stephen. 1997. “Ethnic Reidentification in Ukraine,” International Programs Center, Population Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census, IPC Staff Paper, No. 90, pp. 1–27.Google Scholar
Ray, J. J. 1983. “Racial Attitudes and the Contact Hypothesis,” Journal of Social Psychology, 119, pp. 3–10.Google Scholar
Roper, Steven D. and Fesnic, Florin. 2003. “Historical Legacies and Their Impact on Post-Communist Voting Behaviour,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 55, pp. 119–131.Google Scholar
Sapeliak, Oksana. 1991. “Mizhnatsionalny shliub i asimilyatsiia” (“Inter-nationality Marriage and Assimilation”), Dzvin, No. 7, pp. 76–78.Google Scholar
Shaw, Denis J. B. 1994. “Crimea: Background and Aftermath of Its 1994 Presidential Election,” Post-Soviet Geography, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 221–246.Google Scholar
Shulman, Stephen. 1998a. “Competing versus Complementary Identities: Ukrainian-Russian Relations and the Loyalties of Russians in Ukraine,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 615–632.Google Scholar
Shulman, Stephen. 1998b. “Cultures in Competition: Ukrainian Foreign Policy and the ‘Cultural Threat’ from Abroad,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 287–303.Google Scholar
Siegelbaum, Lewis H. and Walkowitz, Daniel J. 1995. Workers of the Donbass Speak: Survival and Identity in the New Ukraine, 1989–1992 (Albany: State University of New York Press).Google Scholar
Smith, Graham and Wilson, Andrew. 1997. “Rethinking Russia's Post-Soviet Diaspora: The Potential for Political Mobilisation in Eastern Ukraine and North-East Estonia,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 49, No. 5, pp. 845–864.Google Scholar
Solchanyk, Roman. 1994. “The Politics of State Building: Centre-Periphery Relations in Post-Soviet Ukraine,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 47–68.Google Scholar
Stebelsky, Ihor. 1997. “The Toponomy of Ukraine,” Post-Soviet Geography and Economics, Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 276–287.Google Scholar
Stephan, Walter G., Ybarra, Oscar, Martinez Martinez, Carmen, Schwarzwald, Joseph and Tur-Kaspa, Michal. 1998. “Prejudice toward Immigrants to Spain and Israel,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 559–576.Google Scholar
Szporluk, Roman. 1997. “Ukraine: From Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State,” Daedalus, Vol. 126, No. 3, pp. 85–119.Google Scholar
Ulbig, Stacy. 1999. “The Influence of Local Government Systems on Political Participation,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April.Google Scholar
Wilson, Andrew. 1995. “The Donbas between Ukraine and Russia: The Use of History in Political Disputes,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 30, pp. 265–289.Google Scholar
Wilson, Andrew. 2000. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (New Haven: Yale University Press).Google Scholar
Wilson, Andrew and Birch, Sarah. 1999. “Voting Stability, Political Gridlock: Ukraine's 1998 Parliamentary Elections,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 51, pp. 1039–1068.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, William. 1998. “Is Ukraine a Political Community?” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 43–55.Google Scholar