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.

This collection is complemented by the book entitled Russia's Imperial Endeavor and Its Geopolitical Consequences.

Chronology of Modern Ukraine (1922–2022)

Preface (Henry E. Hale)

I. Ukraine’s Patronal Democracy: Actors, Processes, and Social Roots

Ukrainian Regime Cycles and the Russian Invasion (Bálint Madlovics, Bálint Magyar)

Patronalism and Limited Access Social Order: The Case of Ukraine (Vladimir Dubrovskiy)

Continuity and Change of the Social Contract in Ukraine: The Case of Contested Anti-Corruption Policies (Oksana Huss)

Regime Cycles and Neopatrimonialism in Ukraine (Oleksandr Fisun, Uliana Movchan)

War, De-oligarchization, and the Possibility of Anti-Patronal Transformation in Ukraine (Mikhail Minakov)

II. Oligarchic Structures and the War: A Chance for Anti-Patronal Transformation?

Ukrainian Oligarchs: The War as a Challenge (Igor Burakovsky, Stanislav Yukhymenko)

Ukraine’s Energy Sovereignty in Time of War: Russia Lost Influence, but the Oligarchs Did Not (Dmytro Tuzhanskyi)

The Main Driving Forces of De-Patronalization in Ukraine: The Role of Ukrainian Business (Vladimir Dubrovskiy)

Ukraine’s Criminal Ecosystem and the War: Ukrainian Organized Crime in 2022 (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime - GI-TOC)

III. The Ukrainian Society: Anti-Patronal Changes in Identity and Activism

From Patronalism to Civic Belonging: The Changing Dynamics of the National-Civic Identity in Ukraine (Evgenii Golovakha, Kateryna Ivashchenko-Stadnik, Oksana Mikheieva, Viktoryia Sereda)

The Ukrainian Civil Volunteer Movement during Wartime (2014–2022) (Csilla Fedinec)

Ukraine’s Religious Landscape: Between Repression and Pluralism (Denis Brylov, Tetiana Kalenychenko)

Transforming Patronal Democracy Bottom-Up: Two Logics of Local Governance in Ukraine (Oleksandra Keudel)

Contributors
Index