CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Hardt, Anne |
|---|---|
| Title | From Georgia with Love: A Study of Policy Transfer from Georgia to Ukraine's Odessa Region |
| Summary | Despite the Revolution of Dignity in 2013/14, one of Ukraine’s most powerful internal enemies prohibiting a smooth functioning economy remains corruption. Praised for far-reaching reforms in this area, former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was made Governor of Odessa oblast on May 30, 2015. Odessa is one of Ukraine’s key regions due to its economic importance, its strongly russified population and its proximity to Russian-controlled territory. Over the course of 1.5 years, Saakashvili and his mainly Georgian team fought for implementing neoliberal anti-corruption concepts developed during the reforms in their home country. The team resigned on November 7th, 2016 leaving most of them unrealised. Employing Dolowitz’s and Marsh’s framework for analysing policy transfer processes, this thesis assesses the process of policy transfer from Georgia’s national to Odessa’s regional level with a focus on problems leading to its failure. Not only can this study contribute to broadening the spectrum of the policy transfer literature which mainly focuses on positive and horizontal cases at national level and Western borrowers and lenders. It also sheds light on recent events in the war-torn country. Findings show that the process was one of neoliberal projectification. An interlinked set of problems led to its failure including the dubiety of overall policy objectives, resistance at national and local level, a lack of available instruments at regional level and of trained administrative and implementing personnel for the mission, the foreign reformers’ knowledge gaps on the oblast and Russia’s strong influence in the region. |
| Supervisor | Svensson, Sara; Jordana, Jacint |
| Department | School of Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/hardt_anne.pdf |
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