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Harvard International Review
http://www.harvardir.org/articles/1704/

Pluralismo não fácil na Ucrânia – Ukraine's Uneasy Pluralism

by Paul D'Anieri*

Since 2004 many analysts inside and outside Ukraine have asked whether the "promise" of the Orange Revolution would be fulfilled or not. The fragmentation of the "Orange Coalition," the return to power of Viktor Yanukovych, and the ongoing political instability in the country have led to considerable despair. The wary reunification of the Orange Coalition of parties led by Viktor Yushchenko and Yuliya Tymoshenko in late 2007 led to renewed hope that an agenda forged in 2004 would finally be pursued.
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However, it is possible to see the Orange Revolution neither as a revolution nor as a failure. It is much more plausible to view the events of 2004 as a restoration -- a restoration of a pluralist political system in place since 1991, which Leonid Kuchma was trying to overthrow in order to institute a hegemonic one-party system akin to that which many other states in the region have adopted. Viewed as a restoration, the events of 2004 appear from the perspective of 2008 as a tentative success. Ukraine remains, in stark contrast to Belarus, Russia, and much of the rest of the former Soviet

Union, a highly competitive pluralist political entity. In Ukraine, a tendency for political power to consolidate is offset by social and economic pluralism. The key question for the future is whether that balance will continue to hold.
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Three basic arguments about the "Ornge Restoration" and subsequent events follow. ...
Complete article: http://www.harvardir.org/articles/1704/

Nota: Paul D'Anieri is Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of Humanities at the University of Kansas. His work focuses on politics and foreign policy in the post-Soviet region. His most recent book is Understanding Ukrainian Politics: Power, Politics, and Institutional Design (2007).