ABSTRACT
Ukraine gained its independence when the Soviet Union disintegrated at the end of 1991. Like all the other postcommunist states, it had accepted and had begun to implement the process of transition from a planned economic system to a market-based economy where the forces of demand and supply would largely determine the allocation of resources. However, it was doing so without the support of a clearly articulated postindependence constitution, Ukraine being the only post-Soviet country lacking a new constitution as late as June 1996. Moreover, the collapse of the Soviet Union itself imposed a series of severe shocks on Ukraine, both political (in that independence came far faster than Ukraine's elites had anticipated) and economic (loss of mainly Russian markets, energy supplies available only at world market prices, etc.).
