Democratic Reform in Ukraine: Does Western Policy Undermine the Chances for Success?

Successful economic reform and the transition to a free-market economy under a stable political system is the key to Ukraine's successful road to a new democratic beginning. Western assistance should primarily serve in an advisory role to stabilize the Ukrainian government, establish a viable rule of law, rudimentary representative government, and a system to protect individual and investment capital followed by direct investment and joint economic ventures with Ukrainian companies.This paper proposes a sequentially phased transformation model which encourages Ukraine's leaders to concentrate their efforts on first building a stable government, although not necessarily a democracy, and then focus on meaningful economic reforms to establish a solid economy with free market principles. In the long term, free-market economic principles will undermine an authoritarian government and foster the introduction of a democratic government. Current Western efforts supporting simultaneous political and economic reform are inconsistent with Ukraine's cultural and historical past and undermine democratic and economic reform.