ABSTRACT
It is no accident that scholars of Ukraine’s parliament have studiously avoided
scrutinizing the characteristics and role of factions in the twelfth Verkhovna
Rada of Ukraine.1 Information about their creation, membership, political
orientation, activities and duration is scarce, incomplete and sometimes
contradictory.2 The picture that does emerge is extremely untidy. Factions
were officially recognized after the March 1990 elections, but remained
incoherent and played a generally insignificant role in the parliament’s work.
More importantly, alongside this institutional innovation, a de facto ‘two-party
system’ of blocs encompassing the smaller, overlapping groups emerged. The
existence of a more or less defined ‘majority’ and ‘opposition’ was the key
feature of the Verkhovna Rada until Ukraine’s independence precipitated the
break up of both formations, permitting factions to become more tangible inside
parliament between 1992 and 1994.
