Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Graduate Program in International Studies Dissertations Winter 2009 The Rise of 'People Power': Role of Civil Society in the "Color Revolutions" Vladyslav Galushko Old Dominion University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gpis_etds Part of the International Relations Commons Recommended Citation Galushko, Vladyslav. "The Rise of 'People Power': Role of Civil Society in the "Color Revolutions"" (2009). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), dissertation, International Studies, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/0gh0-ea33 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gpis_etds/45 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Program in International Studies at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE RISE OF 'PEOPLE POWER': ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE "COLOR REVOLUTIONS" by Vladyslav Galushko B.A. June 2001, Kyiv National Shevchenko University M.P.A. August 2004, University of North Dakota A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY INTERNATIONAL STUDIES OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY December 2009 Approved by: David Earnest (Member) Dana Heller (Member) ABSTRACT THE RISE OF 'PEOPLE POWER': ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE "COLOR REVOLUTIONS" Vladyslav Galushko Old Dominion University, 2009 Director: Dr. Regina Karp This dissertation has been spurred by the surprising turn of events that took place in Georgia and Ukraine in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Both countries were scheduled to have elections - parliamentary in Georgia and presidential in Ukraine. Though fraud, voter intimidation and opposition harassment were widely expected, few predicted the magnitude of popular response that swept away the regimes of Leonid Kuchma and Eduard Shevarnadze. Grappling with the unexpected, many heaped praise on the so- called "people power" that was able to bring masses to the streets and sustain their involvement in what were quickly labeled "color revolutions." Civil society groups like Pora in Ukraine and Kmara in Georgia became the cause celebre for Western media. Few questions were asked as to what made the civic organizations in Ukraine and Georgia so effective. This neglect of deeper investigation is especially puzzling, given the vast array of past assessments that decried the civil societies in those and other post- Soviet states as weak, overly dependent on Western aid and unable to relate to the local populace. The analysis that this dissertation will perform is critical not only for our understanding of contemporary political events in transitioning societies, but also for the evolution of major theoretical debates in the field. By stressing the primacy of civil society's involvement in "color revolutions," it lends substantive support to the participatory approach, confirming the leading role of ordinary citizens over domestic elites in democratic transformations. At the same time, because the research is focused on the specific features which enhance the effectiveness of civic groups, it contributes to the scholarly discussion (often dating to the times of Locke, Kant and the Scottish Enlightenment) on the merits and weaknesses of civil society as well as its connections to the political and societal realms. Finally, the research suggests how the particular circumstances of "color revolutions" can enhance our general appreciation of democratic transitions. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Regina Karp for her guidance and support and my committee members, Dr. David Earnest and Dr. Dana Heller, for their valuable feedback. A special thanks goes to my parents, Anna and Anatoliy, for their unconditional belief in me, and my brother, Artem, who became so interested in my work that he decided to accompany me on the fieldtrip to Georgia. Finally, I am deeply grateful to Curt and Marina whose close friendship, patience, and encouragement helped me succeed in this endeavour. V TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. LITERATURE REVIEW 1 GENERAL ASPECTS OF CIVIL SOCIETY 3 CIVIL SOCIETY AND DEMOCRATIZATION 37 CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE 53 CONCLUSIONS 60 II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 68 RESEARCH DESIGN 68 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 102 III. CASE STUDY: UKRAINE 109 ORANGE REVOLUTION 110 FORMATIVE YEARS 117 NONPROFIT SECTOR IN UKRAINE 119 PROFILE: CVU 137 CVU AND THE ORANGE REVOLUTION 157 PROFILE: PORA 174 PORA AND THE ORANGE REVOLUTION 200 IV. CASE STUDY: GEORGIA 213 ROSE REVOLUTION 213 FORMATIVE YEARS 222 NONPROFIT SECTOR IN GEORGIA 223 PROFILE: KMARA 247 KMARA AND THE ROSE REVOLUTION 272 PROFILE: ISFED 281 ISFED AND THE ROSE REVOLUTION 302 V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 309 ASSESSING ORGANIZATIONAL EMBEDDEDNESS 311 EMBEDDEDNESS AND DEMOCRATIZATION 332 LESSONS LEARNED 367 CONCLUSIONS 374 REFERENCES 377 APPENDIX I 395 APPENDIX II 396 APPENDIX III 397 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS APPENDIX IV 398 VITA 399 vii LIST OF TABLES Chapter Page 1. SUB-HYPOTHESIS 1 333 2. SUB-HYPOTHESIS 2 340 3. SUB-HYPOTHESIS 3 345 4. ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESES 350 5. ANTECEDING VARIABLES 356 1 CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW The research for this dissertation has been spurred by the peaceful democratic transitions, more commonly known as the "color revolutions," that occurred in Georgia and Ukraine in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Although many actors have contributed to the successful fall of the Shevarnadze and Kuchma semi-authoritarian regimes, the public attention has been fixated on civil society. Many credited civic groups, like Kmara and Pora, for starting the snowball of public protests and helping sustain them for several days, sometimes in harsh weather conditions. Others, refusing to believe that apathetic post-Soviet masses can do anything on their own, saw foreign-funded non­ government organizations as pawns in the geopolitical game between the West and Russia to delineate and control the spheres of influence. As a result, one is still left with the question whether, regardless of their influence, non-governmental organizations were an independent or a controlled player in that process. For all the research generated by the interest in those events, there is no answer what made specific civil groups, not an amorphous civil society, effective in those days. Most research pieces look at the domestic civil societies comprehensively, asserting that by 2003 or 2004 they were strong enough to be an independent actor. However, during the revolutions it was not the whole civil society, but specific organizations that proved critical in mounting and sustaining the protests. Furthermore, the abysmal performance of civil societies in Ukraine and Georgia in the post-revolutionary period rejects the This paper follows the format requirements of The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors and Publishers 15th edition. argument that they were uniformly strong. This work seeks to fill this gap in research by analyzing four civic groups in the two countries - their founding, growth and, finally, involvement in the "color revolutions." It posits that a high degree of their connection to the host society helped them play a critical role in those events. Such connections, known as organizational embeddedness, included their ability to relate to ordinary people, interact with and be respected by relevant political actors, and use any foreign financial and methodological assistance effectively. The primary focus of my dissertation lies at the intersection of two distinct issues - civil society and democratization. On one hand, the research seeks to determine the role of civil society organizations in the process of democratic transitions, more specifically peaceful "color revolutions." This task necessitates a closer evaluation of the available studies within the democratization literature. On the other, the dissertation's key hypothesis asserts that the influence of civic organizations will be dependent on the extent of their embededdness in the fabric of respective domestic societies. In order to select valid indicators for empirical testing, it is important to review the extant literature on civil society, too. Therefore, the main goal of this chapter is to provide a critical overview of scholarly research in both fields with a specific attention to how features of the internal organization of civil society groups impact their wider relevance in emerging democracies. To this end, the chapter will begin by reviewing the general aspects of civil society - the available scholarly definitions and debates on the concept, the purported external and internal reasons for its emergence and development, the benefits and challenges that civil society often generates. The second part will concentrate on the role of civil society in democratization. The discussion will include an assessment of 3 relations between civil society on one hand and democratization and foreign aid on the other. To illuminate several theoretical propositions, this part will draw on a number of available case studies from Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, as the dissertation's main region of interest. As seen from the structure of the chapter, the research intends to pursue a number of tasks. First, it seeks to show how the phenomenon of