The Electoral Effects of Decentralization: Evidence from Ukraine
How do reforms affect elections in young democracies? Dr. Vlasenko looks at how giving more fiscal power to local communities in Ukraine in 2015 - 2020 influenced voter turnout and the types of people who got elected in local elections. In 2014, Ukraine's government started a decentralization reform which allowed local territorial communities to gain wider administrative, financial, and fiscal independence from the central authorities. This research finds that this reform led to more people voting in local elections. In addition, decentralization made it easier for candidates without higher education and party affiliations to win elections. As more people became interested in local politics, and as local issues became more important, local authorities have become more accountable, and communities have become less dependent on the central government. So, even in places where democracy isn't strong, giving more power to local areas can make people more likely to vote and run for local offices because they see local elections as more important and worth participating in.
Anastasiia Vlasenko is a HURI Research Fellow at the Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute, a visiting professor at Kyiv School of Economics, and a postdoctoral fellow at the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia. She studies legislative politics and democratization with specialization in politics of Ukraine. Her monograph project, ‘The Electoral Effects of Decentralization: Evidence from Ukraine’ investigates how decentralization reform affects electoral mobilization and diversity in a weakly institutionalized democracy. Vlasenko is particularly interested in transitional period reforms, propaganda, legislative politics, and forecasting. Her research has been published in the Journal of Politics. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Florida State University in 2022, M.A. in Political Science from Florida State University in 2018, M.A. in International Relations from New York University in 2016, and M.Sc. in European Affairs from Lund University in 2013, and B.A. in Political Science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 2011. In 2020-2021, she worked at the Hertie School in Berlin as a visiting researcher. In 2014-2016, Vlasenko was a Fulbright scholar at New York University.
