May, 2001. Prague
Democracy comes through a desovietization process.
Corruption is a central instrument for totalitarian government
Central to totalitarianism is corruption. It is an indispensable, socially accepted and strictly regulated function of the totalitarian system that is non-accountable and non-transparent, secured with impunity and providing no room for public / private dialogue.
Alternatively, for centuries democracy has developed as a means of public restraint that imposes boundaries on government discretion and power.
The constraints are implemented by sophisticated political, governmental and societal institutions: starting with constitutions, legislation, to Green and White policy papers, public service delivery surveys, public budget hearings and the Ethic Codes of public servants.
All these components are targeted to ensure public control over state power.
The New Phenomenon of Manufactured and Donor-Guided Transformation to Democracy
Ukraine is now undergoing a manufactured, donor-guided transformation from totalitarianism to democracy, as opposed to the evolutionary democratization process as it developed in the West.
Management: the Challenge of Manufactured Democracy
Democracy in Ukraine depends upon the quality of the management of this accelerated societal change, as evidenced in:
design and guidance of the reforms;
assessment whether reforms produce thriving democratic institutions?
new skills for key actors in democracy, such as the government, private business and civil society; and
access to new informational and technical resources.
Donor Responsibility
Conceptual guidance and financial support for our transformation has been undertaken by the international donor community:
This calls for intellectual responsibility on the donor's side, including taking into consideration all factors in the transformation process.
Assessing the level of technical readiness to digest and implement the advised measures is only one obvious factor.
Donors must also connect the declared goals of TA to practical outputs in the context of the country's expected performance.
Wrong Assumptions Negatively Affect Transformation
The transformation strategy currently at work in Ukraine made certain assumptions about what key focuses, actors and processes were required. These assumptions were applied in three sectors: government, business and civil society. The effects of this strategy have produced concrete, observable results, not all of them positive.
Concerning government reforms, the donor community assumed that once the pressure of totalitarianism was removed:
the government would accept good advice
would make good decisions for liberalization, privatization and financial stabilization; and
would automatically:
acquire the new role of public policy maker,
stop interfering in businesses,
begin providing quality public services,
manage public finance in an effective, transparent way.
The result?
Because the Soviet-style government machinery was left intact, Ukrainian power structures do not have the capacity or skills to deal with the new, legitimate forces in society finding their public voice.
Untrained in the process of public policy, which provides legitimate ways and means to balance the conflicting voices that are a necessary part of democracy, the government is not effectively formulating and implementing policy, or providing services it has never previously provided.
Practically all government decisions are therefore "manually" managed.
A new, professional class of democratic government bureaucracy is not being created.
Concerning business reforms, the donor community, led by the ideas of western intellectual socialism, assumed:
Private ownership should be introduced by “fair redistribution” socialist methods;
De-facto owners will gladly give up their property and humbly disappear, not interfering with the privatization process created by donors;
Newly redistributed Soviet enterprises will behave in ways consistent with western protocols and immediately know the rules, when led by the invisible hand of the market.
The result?
Already existing lease holders and cooperatives, deemed illegitimate by this socialist privatization concept, were destroyed.
The population's trust in democratic reform was seriously injured by this double standard.
Denied access to legitimate business some of these people who could adapt, strengthened Ukraine’s shadow economy.
In addition, neither legitimate competition systems nor investment infrastructures were ever developed.
Concerning civil society reforms, the donor community assumed:
Once the pressure of totalitarianism was removed it would be only a matter of personal will to commence: public participation in policy processes; citizens rights movements; public monitoring of government and its management of public finance.
The result?
Our citizens democratic skills are developing haphazardly, without systemic assistance;
Ukraine has only ad hoc, one-off projects similar to those supporting civil society in developed democracies, where the system is already in place.
Ukraine's Lame Democracy
In Ukraine, only one part of the democracy cycle was introduced:
The political institutions ensuring the transfer of power – a constitution providing for human rights, elections, and political parties – are essentially in place.
The other vital part of democracy, that ensures public control over the elected power between elections, has not been established. The democratic institutions ensuring daily public / private interaction are missing.
The Government of Ukraine has not developed:
basic skills of policy analysis that would account for differing societal interests and their implementation
skills of policy consultations and public policy dialogue
The Citizens of Ukraine have not developed:
"know how" to monitor the government
institutions to provide feedback through civic participation
Missing the Obvious
Unfortunately, the public policy process, a cornerstone of democracy, is not a focus of technical assistance programs in fSU countries.
yet, public policy is ubiquitous in western democracies:
university departments with specializations in public policy
governments with policy analysts and policy managers
procedures, standards of policy consultations and policy communication
guidelines, policy document templates, green books, white books
citizen participation procedures and institutions
this system enables the government / citizen partnership that builds healthy, effective states.
There is only one explanation for this lack: western public policy process is taken for granted because it has thoroughly penetrated social life; it is therefore overlooked as a necessary and transferable body of knowledge and skills.
An Example of Successful Transformation
What has been lacking in Ukrainian TA was provided to central European countries entering the EU:
Candidate countries were required to adopt EU institutional standards and develop necessary infrastructures;
The EU imposed technical expectations on candidate governments, businesses and societies, providing a binding framework for the transformation process;
TA effectiveness is directly tied to accession performance.
Conclusions
As a post-totalitarain transition country, Ukraine has shown the world that:
Democratic institutions do not spring fully formed, like Athena, from out of post-totalitarian environments;
Public policy processes that facilitate the accountability and transparency of elected power, through sustained government / citizen dialogue, have yet to be set up in our country.
Democracy is a skill built into institutions with specific structures, procedures and standards, in both government and non-government spheres.
Unfortunately, the development of these democratic institutions has not become the target of TA programs in Ukraine.
It is fundamentally good news that democracy is not a mystery but a skill that can be taught and learned;
Central European countries have been successful at mastering this craft of democracy;
Their experience could be repeated by donors in our country and by ourselves, then the work of democratic transformation could go forward in Ukraine.
