Transition impossible? Ukraine between violence and power. Issue 3 (2nd September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Oleinik, Anton
• Is Part Of: Journal of political power. Volume 10:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 371
• Page End: 389
• Publication Date: 2017-09-02
• Subjects: Violence -- power distance -- Ukraine -- Russia -- path-dependence; Power (Social sciences) -- Periodicals; Power (Philosophy) -- Periodicals; 303.305
• DOI: 10.1080/2158379X.2017.1382178
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2158-379X

Abstract

Abstract: This article discusses authority culture in Ukraine. 'Russian power', i.e. a particular configuration of power relationship that has been prevailing in the Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet empires, is used as a point of reference. Two features of Russian power explain its closeness to violence: mostly negative associations (such as force, money and corruption) and a high power distance. It is argued that a potential movement from violence to power understood as human ability to act in concert exists in Ukraine. Members of Ukraine's sub-elites have a chance to become a driving force of this process. Under certain conditions they could take a lead in transitioning to less violent models of power in politics and elsewhere. The data were drawn from three mass surveys conducted in Russia ( N = 2939 and N = 11, 096) and in Ukraine ( N = 2040) from July 2016 to January 2017.