Divided We Stand? The Effects of Identity Crisis on Democratic Institutionalization in Ukraine

Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, a new name appeared on the map of Europe- Ukraine. No longer simply the borderland of the empires of Europe, Ukraine was now a sovereign nation. Traditional literature argues that to craft and maintain a nation requires a nation-building identity, a solid understanding of who is the in-group and who is the out-group; such an identity has not coalesced in the two decades of an independent Ukraine. This thesis analyses the interplay between democratic consolidation, both institutionally and culturally, economic development, and identity volatility in Ukraine through the lens of the three major eras in its brief history: the Post-Communist decade, the Orange Revolution, and the post-Orange period. It finds that because identity and political preferences are so tightly entwined, the lack of identity cohesion in Ukraine exacerbates the political and economic volatility of the nation; however, unless the incentives for Ukrainian elites both domestically and abroad shift dramatically, this issue will not be resolved