Policing, Democratization and Political Leadership in Postcommunist Ukraine

Extract

Policing, a subject little studied by North American political scientists, has considerable relevance to newly democratizing countries, particularly those emerging from communist rule. Taking the case of Ukraine, the article examines what measures have been adopted to transform that country's Soviet pattern of authoritarian policing into something resembling that of established European liberal democracies. The balance sheet shows few signs of positive change. Instead, thanks to President Leonid Kuchma's leadership, the politicization and corruption of the police is now more blatant than ever. A new form of police state, not seen in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, threatens the rule of law and democracy along with it.