I'm not a constitutional lawyer so I really can't debate the particulars of the court's decision. But when you stand back, the perception in the West is, in 2004, with the support of over 400 members of the Rada (Ukraine's parliament), Ukraine adopted these constitutional changes and they've been implementing them for five years. And all of a sudden the constitutional court comes out and says, "Oops, we made a mistake"? The appearance, I think, is not good for Ukrainian democracy. It does look like Ukraine is moving backwards. And I think from the perspective of many in the West, while the reform situation produced in some ways gridlock - and you saw it in terms of the battles between the executive branch and the Rada over several years during the Yushchenko presidency - it had a greater balance of power between the Rada and the president, and it provided for some checks and balances. And it seems that the government now, or the president now, wishes to move away from that system. And I think that will cause concern in the West, both in the United States and Europe, about where democracy in Ukraine is going.Radio Free Europe interviews (emphasis mine) Steven Pifer, a Brookings fellow and former US Ambassador to Ukraine from 1998 to 2000. The move by the court certainty is a step back, I question is description of the post-2004 of one that "provided some checks and balances". It seemed like a system that encouraged delay, opacity,with the occasional rule breaking by both the president and the Rada.
It's not going to be good for Ukraine's image, or for the image of the current government, if the first national election held after the presidential election in February is seen as dramatically worse in terms of democratic standards. That's not going to be good. My worry about it is that it then becomes harder to keep Western interest in Ukraine alive.Pfier response to a slightly loaded question on the local elections, where RFE points out the local election law favors the party in power.
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