Most international and domestic academics investigate regionalism and party competition in Ukraine separately (Solchanyk, 1994; Hesli 1995; Kubicek, 2000; Lisnychuk, 2000; Matsuzato, 2001; Katchanovski 2001 and 2006; Ryabchuk, 2001; Sasse 2001; Wolczuk, 2002; Hrytsak, 2002; Rodgers, 2006; D’Anieri, 2007; Clem and Craumer 2008). This paper demonstrates the added value of synthesizing both literatures in order to explain why political parties in Ukraine keep politicising the centre-periphery cleavage without implementing territorial reforms when in office. The study prioritises the case of the Party of Regions – the ruling party. The paper analyses its manifestos from a range of electoral campaigns at national and regional levels, on the one hand, and traces its practices of agenda-setting and decision-making when in power, on the other hand. In order to explain the significant gap between the two, the paper brings together academic literatures on regionalism and party competition and applies them for the case of the Eastern European country beyond the EU.
