| This dissertation compares voting behavior, political attitudes, and privatization in two groups of regions in post-communist Ukraine and Moldova, those under the long history of Russian and then Soviet rule and those under Austro-Hungarian and then Polish, Romanian, and Czechoslovak rule. It examines the role of the different historical experience, religion, economy, ethnicity, and leadership in regional political cleavages and conflicts. This dissertation uses statistical analysis of the election and referendum results in 1991--1999, the 1996 World Values Survey, and the 1998 Laitin/Hough Survey, as well as interpretative analysis of attitudes and behavior of political leaders. This study concludes that distinct historical experiences have strong and significant effect on political behavior and attitudes in regions of Ukraine and Moldova. The long history of Russian, and then Soviet, rule is a major factor of the support for pro-Communist and pro-Russian parties and politicians, while the history of Austro-Hungarian rule and then Polish, Romanian, and Czechoslovak rule, is strongly associated with the pro-nationalist and pro independence vote.;This dissertation shows that social capital associated with different historical experiences is one of the major factors affecting regional variation in the character and the rate of privatization in regions of Ukraine and Moldova. Interpretative analysis of media reports and case studies indicates that corruption and organized crime linked to privatization are more prevalent in historically Eastern part of Ukraine and Moldova than in Western regions. Statistical analyses of the 1996 World Values Survey data and aggregate data show that the distinct historical experience in Western regions positively affects support for increase in private ownership and the proportion of peasant household output in the agricultural production. This study suggests that historically evolved cultural factors play important role in regional political and policy divisions. |
