Rethinking the 'Orange revolution'

Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics

Volumn 25, Issue 2-3, 2009, Pages 227-254

  White, Stephen ^a,b   Mcallister, Ian ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW   (United Kingdom)

^b JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 76649135647     PISSN: 13523279     EISSN: 17439116     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13523270902903947     Document Type: Article

References (28)

1. For the wider context of the Ukrainian events of the end of 2004 see for instance Andrew Wilson, Ukraine's Orange Revolution (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2005).
2. Anders Å slund and Michael McFaul (eds.), Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine's Democratic Breakthrough (Washington, DC: Carnegie, 2006);
3. Taras Kuzio (ed.), 'Democratic Revolution in Ukraine: From Kuchmagate to Orange Revolution', special issue of the Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol.23, No.1 (2007);
4. and most recently David Lane, 'The Orange Revolution: "People's Revolution" or Revolutionary Coup?', British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol.10, No.4 (2008), pp.525-49.
5. Focus groups have been little used so far in the study of post-communist politics, although they have a number of obvious advantages in societies in which there is still a strong cultural bias towards reporting opinions that are thought to be favoured by those who are asking the questions, or in general the state authorities. As Richard A. Krueger has noted, focus groups 'allow the researcher to get in touch with participants' perceptions, attitudes, and opinions in a way that other procedures do not allow': Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 2nd edn (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994), p.238.
6. There is a substantial methodological literature: see, for instance, Rosaline Barbour, Doing Focus Groups (London: Sage, 2007),
7. and Monique M. Hennink, International Focus Group Research: A Handbook for the Health and Social Sciences (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), which pays particular attention to the additional issues that arise in a cross-national context.
8. In addition to the sources cited elsewhere in this essay, the state of public opinion in Ukraine immediately following the 'Orange' events is set out in Richard Rose, Divisions within Ukraine: A Post-Election Opinion Survey, SPP 403 (Glasgow: Centre for the Study of Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, 2005).
9. See,http://www.ukrstat.gov.ua., accessed 15 Feb. 2009.
10. Taras Kuzio, 'Oligarchs, Tapes and Oranges: "Kuchmagate" to the Orange Revolution', Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol.23, No.1 (2007), pp.30-56 (p.42).
11. On music in particular, see Bohdan Klid, 'Rock, Pop and Politics in Ukraine's 2004 Presidential Campaign and Orange Revolution', Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol.23, No.1 (2007), pp.118-37.
12. on the internet see, for instance, Olga Filippova, 'Anti-Orange Discourses in Ukraine's Internet: Before the Orange Split'.
13. ibid., pp.138-51.
14. See for instance Russell J. Dalton, Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies, 5th edn (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2008), pp.66-9.
15. Public Opinion in Ukraine, November 2005. Findings from Survey and Focus Group Research (Washington, DC: IFES, 2005), p.13.
16. For the background to these elections, see Nathaniel Copsey, 'The Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections of 2007', Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol.24, No.2 (2008), pp.297-309.
17. Earlier elections are considered in Vicki L. Hesli, 'The Orange Revolution: 2004 Presidential Election(s) in Ukraine', Electoral Studies, Vol.25, No.1 (2006), pp.168-77
18. and Vicki L. Hesli, 'The 2006 Parliamentary Election in Ukraine', Electoral Studies, Vol.26, No.2 (2007), pp.507-11.
19. See, for instance, Sarah Birch, 'Interpreting the Regional Effect in Ukrainian Politics', Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.52, No.6 (2000), pp.1017-41;
20. Lowell Barrington and Erik Herron, 'One Ukraine or Many? Regionalism in Ukraine and its Political Consequences', Nationalities Papers, Vol.32, No.1 (2004), pp.53-86;
21. Stephen Shulman, 'The Contours of Civic and Ethnic National Identification in Ukraine', Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.56, No.1 (2004), pp.35-56.
22. and Ivan Katchnovski, 'Regional Political Dimensions in Ukraine in 1991-2006', Nationalities Papers, Vol.34, No.5 (2006), pp.507-32.
23. Neil Munro, 'Which Way Does Ukraine Face? Popular Orientations Toward Russia and Western Europe', Problems of Post-Communism, Vol.54, No.6 (2007), pp.43-58.
24. Ivan Katchanovski, 'The Orange Evolution? The "Orange Revolution" and Political Changes in Ukraine', Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol.24, No.4 (2008), pp.351-82.
25. Just 12 per cent, for instance, had confidence in President Yushchenko by October 2008: see,http://www.ifes.org/files/UkrainePresentation.pdf., accessed 27 Feb. 2009.
26. Public Opinion in Ukraine 2008 (IFES, November 2008), available at,http://www.ifes.org/files/UkrainePresentation.pdf., accessed 27 Feb. 2009.
27. See Jeanne Wilson, 'Coloured Revolutions: The View from Moscow and Beijing' Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol.25, Nos.2-3 (2009), pp.369-95.
28. 'I v khvost i v grivnu' [Both tail and hrivna], 22 Dec.2008, available at, http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2008/12/22_a_2915484.shtml., accessed 14 Feb. 2009. The title is a play on words in Russian: griva means 'mane'; Russian g equates to Ukrainian h