Regional focus: Europe – Ukraine
Time: June 2025 – March 2026
Abstract:
Citizen participation holds significant normative value in response to global crises, such as pandemics, climate change, and Russia’s war against Ukraine, destabilising international systems.It is seen as a potential source of legitimacy and co-production benefits. As a result, international development cooperation increasingly prioritises participatory projects for its beneficiaries. However, the global democratic deficit exacerbated by these crises reveals that the lack of citizen engagement, often caused by people opting out, undermines the core promise of (local) democracy. Focusing on local democracy in Ukraine during Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, this study explores the individual-level predictors of citizen participation and local government strategies that encourage it, using a mixed-methods approach, including surveys and case studies in up to eight municipalities. By understanding why citizens in Ukraine still engage in local democracy and how local governments shape those intentions during the war,we help to adjust local democratic practices to citizens’ needs during crises.
Preliminary Research Questions:
- Why do citizens choose to participate in local decision-making and co-production?
- How can democratic local institutions mitigate the lack of citizen participation?
These shall lead to policy recommendations on how to support demand side of citizen participation.
Researchers:
- Dr. Oleksandra Keudel (PI), Associate Professor at the Kyiv School of Economics and an Associate at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
- Andrii Darkovich, Researcher at the Centre for Sociological Research, Decentralisation, and Regional Development at the Kyiv School of Economics Institute
- Lukeria Tetiana, Researcher at the Kyiv School of Economics
The project was selected in response to the following call for proposals: https://icld.se/sv/artikel/call-for-research-proposals-from-local-to-global-challenges-and-opportunities-for-local-democracy-in-times-of-crisis/.
Note: This project follows up on a previous ICLD-funded project by KSE : LINK .