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Ukraine’s oligarchs and oligarchy, their politics, and its economic impact, since the Maidan

22 November 2018, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm

ukraines billionaires

This event is part of the SSEES Research Student Seminar Series. Join us to hear SSEES research students discuss their projects. On the 22nd November, David Dalton with Ukraine’s oligarchs and oligarchy, their politics, and its economic impact, since the Maidan and Kristina Potapova with Popular geopolitics of propaganda: The Russian media and geopolitical imagination in Estonia.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

SSEES

Location

433
SSEES
16 Taviton Street
London
WC1H 0BW

After more than a quarter of a century of independence, two “puzzles” about Ukraine stand out. The first is the country’s very weak economic performance. The second is the resilience of the Ukrainian oligarchy, which has come through two major political upheavals more or less intact. These may be part of the same puzzle, seen from different angles.

But who counts as an oligarch and what is the oligarchy in modern Ukraine? What is the evidence for continuing oligarchic political and economic policy influence post-Maidan? What have been the intended and unintended economic and social effects of economic policy in this period? These are among the key research questions on which I will focus in my research project.

My thesis is that the means of political influence that the very rich use to protect and enhance their wealth encourages the persistence of behavioural and institutional norms that inhibit the development behaviours and institutions associated with broader economic prosperity. The goal of my research project—which stretches across the disciplines of political sociology, political economy and macro-economics—is to look for evidence of this.

The planned research topics, which correspond to the four proposed empirical chapters of my dissertation, are as follows:  

  • the changing patterns of wealth and elite network alliances, before and after 2014;
  • continuity and change in oligarchs’ modes of political influence;
  • continuity and change in oligarchs’ extractive economic schemes; and the claimed successes of Ukraine’s economic reforms 2014 and how these these have been undermined by the survival of the oligarchy.

The other half of this evening will be PhD Candidate Kristina Potapova with Popular geopolitics of propaganda: The Russian media and geopolitical imagination in Estonia.

 

About the Speaker

David Dalton

PhD Candidate at UCL SSEES

David Dalton is a second year MPhil/PhD student at UCL SSEES. Before that, he worked as an editor/economist covering Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Moldova at the EIU, a publishers.