The European Union and Democratic Reforms in Ukraine: Understanding the national context

Abstract

This thesis explores the possibilities and limitations of the EU’s approach to promote democratic reforms in Ukraine in the period since the adoption of the EU-Ukraine Action Plan in February 2005. The Action Plan was agreed within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy. The main focus of the thesis is on the Ukrainian national conditions, which are viewed as variables that may facilitate or restrict the implementation of the reforms. The reforms in question are those that should contribute to further strengthening of the stability and effectiveness of institutions guaranteeing democracy and the rule of law, which is a part of the Copenhagen political criteria. The analysis of the pace of progress in implementation of the reforms in Ukraine has shown that Ukraine has moved forward in some areas, but a lot remains to be done yet. In order to find explanations of the lack of the progress, the theoretical framework of International Socialisation has been chosen. The insights from the Complex Socialization model (Trine Flockhart) have been supplemented with the propositions elaborated by Jeffrey T. Checkel, Frank Schimmelfennig and with the elements from the theory of political culture developed by Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba. The analysis of the national context in order to reveal its facilitating and restricting role has been composed of the discussion of the attractiveness of the EU’s offers for the Ukrainian political elites and the society at large, the degree of legitimacy of the EU’s requirements, the characteristics of political structures and processes at the level of political elites, the strength of the European identification of the Ukrainian society, the participation traditions and the civil society in Ukraine. The general conclusion of the study is that the national context hides both possibilities and limitations for the EU’s approach to strengthen the stability and effectiveness of institutions guaranteeing democracy and the rule of law in Ukraine, but the limitations prevail.