ABSTRACT
The political regime trajectory in Ukraine has been traditionally studied top-down, focusing on the interaction between the main business-political “pyramids.” 1 In line with patronal logic, the argument has been that local sub-patrons use the same principles of eliciting client loyalty as their national patron(s) do. 2 Post-communist multi-level governance structures, largely centralized, have further supported the isomorphism of local and national governance. In Ukraine, the development of patronal democracy has allowed for the relative autonomy of elites in large cities from the national patronal structures. 3 Even before the 2015 decentralization reform, which broadened local government competencies, the political and fiscal autonomy of regional centers enabled local patterns of elite coordination. 4
