ABSTRACT
Building on the 1992 Law on Civil Organizations, the new law sought to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for the functioning of political parties in Ukraine. In Ukraine, the regulatory framework has attempted, with a limited degree of success, to prohibit certain sources of funding and to limit the size of permitted contributions. The executive government led by the president dominates the functioning of the political system in Ukraine. The semi-presidential constitutional framework envisaged the president as a neutral arbiter between the different branches of government. In common with most post-communist countries, Ukraine has high disclosure requirements, including the obligation to report the names of donors to political parties. In countries such as Ukraine, institutional imperfections of the political system, restricted access to the media even for those with capital, discrimination in the allocation of free media coverage, restrictions on the activities of the democratic opposition, selective enforcement and systemic corruption all serve to limit the electoral efficacy of money.
