No. 3: Special issue: Civil society in Post-Euromaidan Ukraine

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Browsing No. 3: Special issue: Civil society in Post-Euromaidan Ukraine by Subject "Euromaidan"

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    Introduction to the Special Issue: Civil Society in Ukraine: Building on Euromaidan Legacy
    (2017) Burlyuk, Olga; Shapovalova, Natalia; Zarembo, Kateryna
    Introduction article to the Special Issue of the Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal.
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    Learning the Lessons from the Euromaidan: The ups and downs of LGBT Activism in the Ukrainian Public Sphere
    (2017) Shevtsova, Maryna
    This paper addresses the growing visibility of LGBT civil society organizations in Ukraine’s political sphere after the Euromaidan. Drawing on the data collected through in-depth, semistructured interviews; participant observations; and an analysis of social media, this study answers this question: How did Ukrainian LGBT groups reshape their political strategies after the Euromaidan? The Euromaidan was an anti-government, citizens’ protest that began in November 2013 in response to the government’s unlawful actions. During it, Ukrainian LGBT activists strategically decided to keep their presence in the protest camp invisible. Though this helped to avoid conflicts, the LGBT movement’s hopes for reforms in sexual minorities’ rights after the Euromaidan remained unfulfilled. This article illuminates how the LGBT activists’ approach to the public sphere in post-Euromaidan Ukraine has changed. It argues that the LGBT movement’s disillusion over the new government’s lack of support triggered a wave of LGBT activism that has resulted in new political strategies. Despite the visible backlash against sexual minorities in 2014-2015, Ukraine’s current turmoil has given the LGBT movement opportunities for political alliances and transnational activism that have seemed to have borne fruit.
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    New Civic Activism in Ukraine: Building Society from Scratch?
    (2017) Worschech, Susann
    Since Euromaidan, civil society in Ukraine faces new challenges and a new role in society. Volunteer work, donations and civic activism have increased vis-à-vis the humanitarian crisis and the war in Eastern Ukraine in an unprecedented dimension. Civil society’s takeover of state responsibilities depicts the compensation of state failure. But it is questionable whether the post-Euromaidan civil society contributes to Ukraine’s democratization process. Based on two case studies, in this article I examine new issues civil society in Ukraine deals with, what forms the basis of a new quality of civic activism and participation. Further, I describe structures, activities and interrelations of this new Ukrainian volunteer movement, with the aim to discuss its ambivalent role in fragile democratization.
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    Substituting for the State: The Role of Volunteers in Defense Reform in Post-Euromaidan Ukraine
    (2017) Zarembo, Kateryna
    While the role of volunteers in sustaining the Ukrainian armed forces against the backdrop of Russian aggression since 2014 has been widely acknowledged in literature, the effect of volunteer initiatives on the state defense capacity in longer term has not been studied thus far. This article aims to address this gap and explore whether volunteer participation led to institutional strengthening of the Ukrainian defense state capacity or to its weakening. The analysis will conclude that the volunteers in fact contributed to both - strengthening the state and weakening it at the same time; the outcome dependent on the context in which the volunteers took action at different times. While volunteer participation failed to bring about systemic reform, it did provide powerful democratic oversight over the state’s key defense institution.