Comprehensive Research of the Contemporary Ukrainian Politics

乌克兰是一个历史上被许多东道国分裂的国家，因此缺乏一个共同的民族认同来整合人口。这就是为什么政府别无选择，只能提出明显无法实现的口号，如向市场经济转型、国家建设、进入欧洲（或离开欧亚大陆）。这种情况使乌克兰政治变得极其口头化和意识形态化。另一方面，政治派系和同胞关系在后共产主义条件下蓬勃发展，例如国有财产私有化和一党政权向机器政治的转变。因此，在乌克兰出现了官方政治话语/宪政制度与政治现实之间的极端距离。这种极端的距离在其他独联体国家是看不到的。乌克兰政治的双重特征体现在政治生活的各个方面。例如，在政党和议会政治中，意识形态上的中间派宗族政党牢牢掌握着权力，而意识形态上的社会主义或民族主义世界观政党则完全与权力疏远，尽管它们在议会选举中的表现并不差。同样，乌克兰的地方制度也是矛盾的：乌克兰在宪法上是一个统一的国家，州长和地区负责人是任命的，但实际上，库奇马试图利用猖獗的地方发号施令来赢得选举。在外交上，乌克兰不知疲倦地宣传他们所谓的欧洲性，但实际上，乌克兰在能源供应和投资方面一直依赖俄罗斯。此外，欧洲毫不掩饰对库奇马的厌恶。正确地说，库奇马总统也应该扮演双重角色，在口头上使政权合法化，在现实中协调各部族的利益。然而，正如2000-2001年的“录音带丑闻”所显示的那样，他似乎已经成为家族政治的俘虏。

Ukraine is a country which has historically been divided by numerous host states, and therefore lacks a common national identity to integrate the population. This is why the government has no alternative but to raise obviously unrealizable slogans, such as the transition to market economy, nation building, and the entrance into Europe (or departure from Eurasia). This situation makes Ukrainian politics extremely verbal and ideological. On the other hand, political clans and fellow-countrymen connections have thriven on the post-communist conditions, such as privatization of state properties and transformation of a single-party regime into machine politics. Thus an extreme distance between official political discourse/constitutional regime and political realities emerged in Ukraine. This extremity of distance cannot be observed in other CIS countries.The dual characteristics of Ukrainian politics are observed in various aspects of political life. In party and parliamentary politics, for example, clan parties, ideologically centrist, hold power firmly, while worldview parties, ideologically either socialistic or nationalistic, have been completely estranged from power, although their performance is not bad in parliamentary elections. Likewise, Ukraine's local system is ambivalent: Ukraine is a unitary state constitutionally and governors and district chiefs are appointed, but in reality L. Kuchma tries to use rampant local bossism for his victory in elections. In diplomacy, Ukraine untiringly propagates their alleged European-ness, but in reality Ukraine has been dependent on Russia in terms of energy supply and investments. Moreover, Europe does not hide its disgust against Kuchma. Properly speaking, the president Kuchma should play a dual role as well, legitimizing the regime verbally and coordinating clans' interests in reality. However, as was shown by the "cassette scandal" in 2000-2001, he would seem to have become a captive of clan politics.