About the Event:

This event will begin with opening remarks from Dr. Henry Hale, Director of GW's Petrach Program on Ukraine, followed by a lecture by the editors and contributors, a moderated Q&A with the audience, and a reception. This event is hosted by the  Petrach Program on Ukraine and the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES). The talk will be in-person.

About the Book

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 jeopardizes the country's independence and its chances for Western-style development. However, the heroic attitude of the Ukrainian people, combined with a solidifying national identity, makes the domestic foundations for a western turn stronger than ever. After the invasion, building strong foundations of liberal democracy will be a top priority. In addition to alleviating immediate problems, the country must also address its post-communist legacy and address the constraints of patronalism.

The authors of this edited volume, leading Ukrainian scholars supplemented by colleagues from Hungary, examine the chances of an anti-patronal transformation after the war. The book provides an overview of the development of Ukraine's political-economic system: color revolutions in 2004 and 2014 brought democratic transformation, but no change in the patronage system The result was patronal regime cycles instead of the emergence of a Western-type liberal democracy in the country. Building on the conceptual framework of the editors' The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes (CEU Press, 2020), the 12 chapters examine the impact of the war on patronal democracy, the relational economy, clientelist society, and the international environment in which Ukraine operates.

About the Speakers

Bålint Madlovics (editor) is a political scientist and economist. He is a Junior Research Fellow at the CEU Democracy Institute and visiting professor at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). He holds an MA in Political Science (2018) from Central European University and BAs in sociology and applied economics. He was a research fellow at the Financial Research Institute in Budapest (2018–2019) and visiting professor at BCE (2022). He has published peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and books on post-communist regimes since 2015. His most recent books, co-authored by Bálint Magyar, include The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes (CEU Press, 2020), A Concise Field Guide to Post-Communist Regimes (CEU Press, 2022), and a two-volume collection of studies on Ukraine’s Patronal Democracy and Russia’s Imperial Endeavor (CEU Press, 2023).

Bålint Magyar (editor) is a sociologist. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the CEU Democracy Institute. He was an activist of the anti-communist dissident movement before the regime change, Member of the Hungarian Parliament (1990–2010), and Minister of Education (1996–1998, 2002–2006). He was an Open Society fellow (2015–2016), Hans Speier Visiting Professor at the New School for Social Research (2017), and Senior Research Fellow at CEU Institute for Advanced Study (2018–2019). He has been publishing and editing writings on post-communist regimes since 2013. His most recent books, co-authored by Bálint Madlovics, include The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes (CEU Press, 2020), A Concise Field Guide to Post-Communist Regimes (CEU Press, 2022), and a two-volume collection of studies on Ukraine’s Patronal Democracy and Russia’s Imperial Endeavor (CEU Press, 2023).

Oleksandr Fisun (contributor) is a professor of political science and the department head at the V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in Ukraine (B.A. with Highest Honors in Political Economy, 1987; C.Sc. in Philosophical Sciences, 1990; D.Sc. habil in Political Science, 2009). His research interests concentrate on Ukrainian and post-Soviet politics. His publications include “Democracy, Neopatrimonialism, and Global Transformations” (Kharkiv, 2006) and numerous book chapters and articles on comparative democratization, informal politics, neopatrimonialism, and regime change in Ukraine and post-Soviet Eurasia. He serves as President of the “Observatory of Democracy” policy research center in Kharkiv, which he founded in 2016 with a group of political experts to improve democratic accountability, civic activism, free and fair elections, and citizen awareness in eastern frontline Ukrainian regions.

Oleksandra Keudel (contributor) is an Associate Professor at the Department of Public Policy and Governance at Kyiv School of Economics. In her research, she focuses on local democracy, social movements and civic engagement, and business-political arrangements at the local level in Ukraine. Oleksandra is also a consultant on Open Government, anti-corruption policies and public integrity for international organizations (Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and the IIEP-UNESCO). She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), and has been a visiting researcher at the George Washington University, NYU and Södertörn University (Sweden). She is a member of PONARS network.

Mykhailo Minakov (contributor) is a senior advisor at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute and philosopher and scholar working in the areas of political philosophy, social theory, international development, and the history of modernity. He is also the editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Ideology and Politics Journal, of the Kennan Focus Ukraine blog, and of the philosophical web portal Koinè. Minakov is the author of six books, co-author of another six books, and of numerous articles in philosophy, political analysis, and history. Mikhail has over twenty years of experience in research and teaching in the universities of Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States.

Uliana Movchan (contributor) is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. She has conducted research on Ukrainian politics at the University of California, San Diego (2012-2013), Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (2017), Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at University of Toronto (2019), Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University (2021-2022), University of Tübingen (2022), and Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University (2022-2023).  She has also been a project manager and expert on projects funded by international foundations such as the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and the International Visegrad Fund.

Please register for the event here: https://forms.gle/4c6K9GCnnQZCCPcu6