Ukraine and the Benefits of Divided Power

I’ve talked with some Ukrainian economists who told me that the economy here is booming, not in spite of, but because of the political deadlock, in which no grouping can exercise complete power and expropriate the other. Although Ukraine is “split” politically (roughly on an east/west axis), there is no real desire to be gobbled up by Russia, even on the part of the leaders of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions. The wealthy backers of that party know that they’re much better off in an independent Ukraine than in a region of Russia.

I got this morning an email from my thoughtful friend John Welborn with a link to this fascinating article from Business Week on the topic, which confirms what I’ve learned here: “Ukraine: What Crisis?: Despite political turmoil, economic growth is roaring.”

The experience of divided government turns out to be fairly similar to the experience of divided government in the US, as Cato scholar William Niskanen argues.