Borders, Constituency Politics, and “Our Man” Voting in Electoral Geography of Ukraine

The electoral geography of Ukraine is predominantly based on compositional effect studies, which consider nationality, language, and foreign policy orientations as main cleavage lines in Ukrainian society. Alternatively, scholars admit statistical significance of the regional factor and often interp...

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Main Authors: Mykola Dobysh, Boris Yatsenko
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Société Royale Belge de Géographie and the Belgian National Committee of Geography 2020-05-01
Series:Belgeo
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/38851
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author Mykola Dobysh
Boris Yatsenko
author_facet Mykola Dobysh
Boris Yatsenko
author_sort Mykola Dobysh
collection DOAJ
description The electoral geography of Ukraine is predominantly based on compositional effect studies, which consider nationality, language, and foreign policy orientations as main cleavage lines in Ukrainian society. Alternatively, scholars admit statistical significance of the regional factor and often interpret it as a historically constituted political culture. Both approaches are based on census and state statistics data (most often at oblast (regional) level) and construct artificial regions for research purposes. We assume that such approaches neglect underlying territorial configurations of electoral behavior in Ukraine. The paper is based on data at polling stations level for 2002-2014 parliamentary elections. The thorough cartographic analysis was conducted to clarify in what cases phantom borders are manifested in electoral maps and to reveal other territorial configurations of electoral behavior in Ukraine. We found that historical borders influence is limited to voting for nationalists, communists, and parties which are perceived as pro-Russian, their manifestations are dependent on each elections context and parties’ electoral strategies, and they are complicated by the overlapping effects of the other factors of electoral behavior (including administrative borders). The paper reveals that constituency campaigning in single-member districts (SMD) can influence parties’ results at the national level PR vote and that scaling of “our man” voting is essential for parties’ electoral success and is used in electoral strategies. We also accentuate the role of administrative borders, local-national and regional-national alliances in electoral geography of Ukraine.
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spelling doaj-art-a9559d7f01e24c8ca325091c9fa659072025-08-20T02:13:15ZengSociété Royale Belge de Géographie and the Belgian National Committee of GeographyBelgeo1377-23682294-91352020-05-01210.4000/belgeo.38851Borders, Constituency Politics, and “Our Man” Voting in Electoral Geography of UkraineMykola DobyshBoris YatsenkoThe electoral geography of Ukraine is predominantly based on compositional effect studies, which consider nationality, language, and foreign policy orientations as main cleavage lines in Ukrainian society. Alternatively, scholars admit statistical significance of the regional factor and often interpret it as a historically constituted political culture. Both approaches are based on census and state statistics data (most often at oblast (regional) level) and construct artificial regions for research purposes. We assume that such approaches neglect underlying territorial configurations of electoral behavior in Ukraine. The paper is based on data at polling stations level for 2002-2014 parliamentary elections. The thorough cartographic analysis was conducted to clarify in what cases phantom borders are manifested in electoral maps and to reveal other territorial configurations of electoral behavior in Ukraine. We found that historical borders influence is limited to voting for nationalists, communists, and parties which are perceived as pro-Russian, their manifestations are dependent on each elections context and parties’ electoral strategies, and they are complicated by the overlapping effects of the other factors of electoral behavior (including administrative borders). The paper reveals that constituency campaigning in single-member districts (SMD) can influence parties’ results at the national level PR vote and that scaling of “our man” voting is essential for parties’ electoral success and is used in electoral strategies. We also accentuate the role of administrative borders, local-national and regional-national alliances in electoral geography of Ukraine.https://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/38851phantom borderselectoral geography of Ukraineadministrative bordersconstituency campaigningscaling “our man” voting
spellingShingle Mykola Dobysh
Boris Yatsenko
Borders, Constituency Politics, and “Our Man” Voting in Electoral Geography of Ukraine
Belgeo
phantom borders
electoral geography of Ukraine
administrative borders
constituency campaigning
scaling “our man” voting
title Borders, Constituency Politics, and “Our Man” Voting in Electoral Geography of Ukraine
title_full Borders, Constituency Politics, and “Our Man” Voting in Electoral Geography of Ukraine
title_fullStr Borders, Constituency Politics, and “Our Man” Voting in Electoral Geography of Ukraine
title_full_unstemmed Borders, Constituency Politics, and “Our Man” Voting in Electoral Geography of Ukraine
title_short Borders, Constituency Politics, and “Our Man” Voting in Electoral Geography of Ukraine
title_sort borders constituency politics and our man voting in electoral geography of ukraine
topic phantom borders
electoral geography of Ukraine
administrative borders
constituency campaigning
scaling “our man” voting
url https://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/38851
work_keys_str_mv AT mykoladobysh bordersconstituencypoliticsandourmanvotinginelectoralgeographyofukraine
AT borisyatsenko bordersconstituencypoliticsandourmanvotinginelectoralgeographyofukraine