The politics of state building: Centre‐periphery relations in Post‐Soviet Ukraine

The Tension Between Governance and State-Building

“…Taking Japan between 1950s and 1980s as example, Ravina [31] describes the sequence from state building to economic growth and then to democratic transformation as well as its consolidation. In their opinions, building a stronger state is the precondition of building a richer nation, stating that "economic development has a strong endogenous effect on democratization" ( [4]:519), and then a more democratic state will subsequently emerges in developing countries [13,35]. This type of theory is usually labeled "democratic sequentialism".…”

Fantasy Counterfactual: A Nuclear-Armed Ukraine

“…20 At the time, the transfer raised no concerns as Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and had been seen as 'Little Russia', rather than its own nation, for centuries. 21 When Ukraine gained independence in 1991, with legal claim to Crimea, the Russian reaction was intense. Not only did Ukraine now control Sevastopol, home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, but many Russians felt as though part of their country had been sheared off.…”

Introduction: Dispersed Minorities and Non-Territorial Autonomy

“…Similar forms of cultural autonomy were introduced in Hungary (Dobos, 2007(Dobos, , 2013, Serbia (Beretka, 2013), andSlovenia (De Villiers, 2012;Sardelić, 2013). Its introduction elsewhere has also been advocated, though with limited effect: in Romania (Decker, 2007), Kosovo (Stroschein, 2008) and Ukraine (Solchanyk, 1994). Outside Europe, its adoption has been proposed in respect of Israel (Peled, 2013, pp.…”