Public support for the devolution of power in Ukraine: Regional patterns

THE ISSUE OF JURISDICTIONAL DIVISION of decision-making authority between central and regional governments is one of the basic constitutional questions facing new states. In Ukraine the constitutional debate over the appropriate division of authority is being complicated by strained relations with Russia. The areas of tension between Russia and Ukraine that have a direct impact on the unitary versus federal state debate include Russia's desire to maintain the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the face of Ukrainian resistance to inter-republic non-economic coordination, the Russian parliament's claim to the territory of Crimea and the Ukrainian parliament's rejection of this claim, and unresolved issues of military security, including the questions of nuclear disarmament and the division of the Black Sea fleet. As long as Russia is unwilling to accept Ukraine's fully independent status', constitutional questions will continue to be considered in an atmosphere saturated with Russian influences. For some Ukrainians this Russian pressure for reunification is perceived as highly intimidating and the pressure produces an atmosphere of being in a constant state of siege. Just as Stalin brought forth the notion of 'capitalist encirclement' to justify state of emergency policies, some Ukrainian leaders have put forward a discourse that implies a kind of 'Russian encirclement'.2 Other Ukrainian leaders, in contrast, sympathise with the Russian presence and believe that Ukraine could be stronger (as it was before) through renewed cooperation with Russia. Support for greater integration within the CIS can be contrasted with concerns that Russia's hegemonic actions threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. In such a politically charged environment, individual perceptions of Russian-Ukrainian relations will have an impact on decisions made about the territorial distribution of political authority. In this article we evaluate the degree to which perceptions of Russian-Ukrainian relations vary significantly by region within Ukraine. Our assumption is that one's cost-benefit calculus associated with closer versus more distant cooperation between Russia and Ukraine depends directly upon where in Ukraine one resides. We hypothesise that territorial divisions characteristic of Ukraine serve to structure not only attitudes toward the degree of independence that is best for Ukraine (and thus the form that relations with Russia should take), but also attitudes toward the division