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Motyl: Is decentralizing Ukraine possible?
The Ukrainian state, as currently structured, is obviously dysfunctional. It claims to be unitary and centralized, but it lacks the capacity to be unitary and centralized. The result is the Yanukovych sultanate: a hierarchically organized and highly centralized polity that is incapable of sweeping the snow from capital city Kyiv’s streets.
What’s the solution? At one time, Yanukovych and the Party of Regions insisted that the answer was decentralization of power to the regions. As soon as they seized power in Kyiv and realized that centralization is the shortest route to wealth enhancement, their decentralizing aspirations went out the window, and Yanukovych the regionalist became Yanukovych the sultan.