Ukraine’s Orange Revolution: Kuchma’s Failed Authoritarianism

Issue Date April 2005
Volume 16
Issue 2
Page Numbers 131-45
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Desperate to secure victory for its own candidate in the 2004 presidential election, the incumbent regime undertook an unprecedented campaign of blatant election fraud. But it had underestimated the citizenry that it was trying to deceive.

About the Author

Lucan Way is Distinguished Professor of Democracy at the University of Toronto. Collaborations with Steven Levitsky include “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism” (2002) and “The New Competitive Authoritarianism” (2020), both published in the Journal of Democracy, and Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War (2010).

View all work by Lucan A. Way

Further Reading

Volume 17, Issue 2

What Really Happened in Kyrgyzstan?

The March 2005 “Tulip Revolution” that toppled President Askar Akeyev is often grouped with the “color revolutions” in Georgia and Ukraine, but in many ways the Kyrgyz case was unique.

Volume 35, Issue 1

How Ukraine Divides Postcommunist Europe

In East-Central Europe, neither physical proximity nor memories of Soviet domination have united countries in their response to the war in Ukraine. What matters most is who stands to benefit.

Volume 4, Issue 3

Politics After Communism: Ukraine—A View from Within

Read the full essay here.