Elections and democratization in Ukraine /

Birch (Univ. of Essex, UK) offers a particularly lucid, data-supported, well-organized study of Ukrainian electoral politics in the 1989-98 period. The election to the Congress of People's Deputies in 1989 revealed early patterns that would become more accentuated in later elections. Data at the end of the Soviet period on the referenda and presidential election of 1991 show the strength of the forces for independence. Statistical analysis of data from all of the elections of the 1989-1998 period reveals the uniqueness of the Ukrainian situation in comparison with its neighbors. Relatively clear-cut regional polarization between the western, more nationalistic part of the country and the more Russian-leaning eastern sector was the predominant characteristic. Variables strongly related to voter choice throughout included ethnicity, region, and membership in the Communist Party. One new development at the end of the decade was the rise of a centrist voting bloc of well-off citizens. While distinct interest groupings were apparent as early as 1989, political party strength was not evident until 1998. This work supplements a growing number of studies of the electoral politics of post-Soviet states a decade after independence. Its focus on the significance of interest groups parallels Nicolai N. Petro's The Rebirth of Russian Democracy (CH, Jan'96). Upper-division undergraduates and above. J. W. Peterson; Valdosta State University