Decentralization and a Risk of Local Elite Capture in Ukraine

Abstract

The most notable element of Ukraine’s decentralization reform is a merging of municipalities into amalgamated territorial communities (ATCs). While the implementation of the reform is slower and more chaotic than anticipated, the reform has widely been hailed as one of the country’s biggest success stories since the Euromaidan Revolution. Scholarly literature on decentralization acknowledges its potential to, among other things, increase popular participation, improve service delivery, and strengthen legitimacy, but also warns of the “dangers of decentralization,” including local elite capture. This chapter argues that there is substantial reason to assume that there is a real risk of elite capture in the current decentralization reform, and suggests that not enough is being done by the central government to mitigate this risk.