| Summary: | This thesis seeks to identify if Ukraine is transitioning to a democracy from an authoritarian regime after the breakup of the Soviet Union and if so, measure Ukraine's democratic progress using specific democratization criteria from the 1990 parliamentary elections to the 2004 Orange Revolution. A free and fair electoral process involving multiple political parties, genuine power resident with elected officials, and executive power both constrained constitutionally and held accountable by other government branches (i.e. the Verkhovna Rada and the judiciary), will be used to measure Ukraine's democratic transition. Historical analysis of democracy's progress will be examined during the presidencies of Leonid Kravchuk (1991-1994), Leonid Kuchma (1994-2004) and Viktor Yushchenko (2004-Present) discerning if democracy has progressed or diminished over the past fifteen years.
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