High Political Participation and Low Political Trust ꟷ From the Orange Revolution to Euromaidan

The leading cause of Euromaidan and the subsequent social revolution that took place in Ukraine in 2013-2014 has been the subject of vigorous debate and inquiry. Scholars, politicians, and experts on Ukraine engaged questions on the similarities and differences between the Orange revolution and Euromaidan. Why was the former peaceful and short-lived, while the latter was violent and enduring? More importantly, what motivated Ukrainian citizens to protest? Utilizing the classical approaches to the study of political protests and participation combined with the literature on political culture in the post-communist countries, this paper submits that the case of Ukraine demonstrated interesting patterns of political participation between 2004 and 2014. Although a low level of confidence in the political institutions and the political regime as the whole, Ukrainians increased their support for such democratic values as protection of human rights, fair and consistent enforcement of the law as well as intolerance towards the presence of corruption. Younger and more educated Ukrainians increased their trust and tolerance towards “others”- people that you meet for the first time, people of another nationality and religion. This, in concert with an increase in interpersonal trust, created favorable conditions for a new form of political socialization, interaction, and collaboration. It also was correlated with an increased in alternative types of political actions, including political protests. The results of the statistical test demonstrated that participation in the Orange revolution was positively correlated with political efficacy. Those who admitted taking part in the Orange revolution expressed stronger beliefs in their ability to influence the decision-making process. Similarly, high level of confidence in the EU was correlated with a higher level of interest in politics, higher levels of interpersonal trust and with a higher level of political participation in activities such as attending peaceful demonstrations and joining boycotts. Ukrainians increased their participation in such activates as signing a petition, contacting an official, and using social media to express their political view during a period of study. The highest increase was observed in contacting or visiting public officials, followed by signing a petition, particularly among the 30-44-year-old’s (the most active group in Euromaidan). Students and those who were employed were the most active in using social media to express their political views. Furthermore, the use of the Internet as the primary source of information was positively correlated with the conduct of different forms of political activities such as contacting officials, signing a petition, participating in peaceful political protests. However, as the author discovered, Ukrainians engaged in these alternative political activities while having little confidence in traditional forms of political activities such as elections. Ukrainians participated in the elections in high numbers, but they did not believe in the voting as the instrument of influence. Their perception of the fairness of the elections was low as well. These findings were surprising because, in the majority of the advanced democracies, the opposite process takes place - citizens believe in the importance of elections, but voting has been declining.