The Challenge of ‘Stateness’ in Estonia and Ukraine

What influence have the OSCE, Council of Europe, EU and Russia had on policy and
legislative adaptation in Estonia and Ukraine since 1991?

‘Stateness’ is congruence between the territorial definition and the right of citizenship
in the state. Surprisingly, it is a much-neglected concept in the state-building and
democratisation literature. To address this gap, the concept of stateness is expanded
upon and used in this work to answer the above question. This is done by means of
analysis of policy areas operationalising stateness.

By analysing the impact of the international actors cited above as the causal factor in
the consolidation of stateness, conclusions are drawn as to the manner of influence of
their policy demands and expectations on domestic policy and legislative adaptation
in Estonia and Ukraine since 1991. The theoretical and conceptual contribution to
state-building in comparative European politics is thus developed further by this
work. Moreover, the empirical contribution provides an applicable
operationalisation of the concept through respective policy areas.

Olena Podolian is a political scientist. This study is her dissertation, completed at the
Department of Political Science, and in connection with the Baltic and East European
Graduate School (BEEGS), at Södertörn University, Sweden.