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Ukraine

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Ukraine

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Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Ukraine has recently undergone an extensive constitutional reform that has changed the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches and their relationship to the President. A reform to local self-government has been suggested, but is yet to be formally approved.

Contents 1 Country summary info 2 State symbols 3 Head of state 4 Legislative branch 5 Executive branch 6 Judicial branch 7 Other bodies 8 See also 9 External links

• Country name
  • conventional long and short form: Ukraine
  • local long and short form: Україна
  • former: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (for previous names see History of Ukraine)

• Country codes
  • ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2: UA; ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3: UKR; ISO 3166-1 Numeric: 804; ITU: UP
  • Dialing code: 380

• Government type
  • republic

• Capital
  • Kiev (also spelled Kyiv, Ukrainian: Київ)

• Administrative divisions
  • 24 Oblasts (provinces), 1 Autonomous Republic, 2 cities with special status
  • for details see Subdivisions of Ukraine

• Independence
  • August 24, 1991, proclaimed by the parliament (from the Soviet Union)
  • approved by referendum (popular vote) on December 1, 1991

• National holiday
  • Independence Day, August 24, (1991)

• Constitution
  • The Constitution of Ukraine was adopted June 28, 1996, and amended December 8, 2004

• Legal system
  • The Ukrainian legal system is based on the civil law and the judicial review of legislative acts.

• Suffrage
  • 18 years of age; universal except legally disabled.

Main articles: Flag of Ukraine, Coat of arms of Ukraine, and Ukraine's glory has not perished

According to the Constitution, the state symbols of Ukraine are the State Flag of Ukraine, the State Coat of arms of Ukraine and the State Anthem of Ukraine.

Flag

The State Flag of Ukraine is a banner of two equally-sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow.

Coat of arms

The Great State Coat of arms of Ukraine will be established with the consideration of the Small Coat of Arms of Ukraine as its main element. The Small Coat of Arms of Ukraine ("the Trident") is based on the emblem of the Rurik Dynasty of the rulers of Kievan Rus'.

Anthem

"Ukraine's glory has not perished" is the national anthem set to the music by Mykhailo Verbytskyi with the words by Pavlo Chubynskyi.

Main article: President of Ukraine

According to the constitution the President of Ukraine is the head of state. The current president of Ukraine is Viktor Yushchenko (since January 23, 2005)

President is elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The last presidential elections were held in 2004 (See: Ukrainian presidential election, 2004).

While after the Constitutional reform in Ukraine the Presidential authority became substantially reduced, the president still wields significant powers accorded to him by law, but partially due to a strong tradition of central authority in the country.

The presidential authority to disband the parliament (Verkhovna Rada) has been substantially reduced as the current Constitution of Ukraine provides for such action only under a more narrow than before specific set of conditions. Similarly, the conditions that allow the President to dismiss the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, including the Prime Minister have been substantially restricted as well. The presidential participation in the choice of the Prime Minister and most other members of the Cabinet has been reduced. While both the choice of the candidate for the Prime Minister and its final approval is now the responsibility of the parliament, it is the President who makes a formal nomination of the candidate proposed to him by the parliamentary coalition back to the full Verkhovna Rada for an up and down approval vote. The issue on whether the presidential role in the nomination is purely ceremonial, that is whether he has to nominate the candidate offered to him by a coalition or whether he can refuse and, thus force the coalition to come up with a different nomination, remains unresolved as of August 2006 and is a matter of an intense political debate.

Although most of the members of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine are chosen and nominated to the Parliament by the Prime Minister, the President still retains the authority to nominate the Ministers of the Foreign Affairs and of Defense for the parliamentary approval.[1] The President also nominates for the heads of the central enforcement-related bodies that do not belong to the Cabinet, such as the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, but not of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the largest governmental security arm whose responsibility includes most of the police (militsiya) agency.

Also, the President appoints and dismisses the Heads of the Local State Administrations (i.e. governors) by nomination of the Cabinet of Ministers. The debate on whether the President could hypothetically reject the candidate for the governernorship officially proposed by the Prime Minister, thus forcing the latter to come up with a different nomination, is yet to be resolved.

Main article: Verkhovna Rada

Verkhovna Rada, a unicameral parliament (450 seats) amends the Constitution of Ukraine, drafts laws, ratifies international treaties, appoints a number of officials, and elects judges.

Elections were last held on March 26, 2006. (See Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2006).

Following the Constitutional Reform in Ukraine the authority of the Verkhovna Rada over the selection and oversight of the executive branch has been substantially increased.

Main article: Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine

The Prime Minister of Ukraine (the head of the Cabinet) and the Cabinet are appointed by the Verkhovna Rada (the parliament). The current Prime Minister is Viktor Yanukovych, whose candidacy was approved on August 4, 2006, following tense and controversial political negotiations.

The appointment of Yanukovych ended the 10-month tenure of Yuriy Yekhanurov, who was the PM since September 28, 2005, and acting PM after his resignation at the first meeting of the newly convoked parliament on May 26, 2006. It should be noted that in early January of 2006 the Verkhovna Rada dismissed the Cabinet of Yekhanurov, but ordered it to continue functioning until the new Cabinet is formed. However, on July 25, 2006, in a surprise action, the newly convoked parliament repealed the January dismissal.

The Prime Minister is both nominated and approved by the parliament. A candidate is proposed by the parliamentary coalition to the President and the latter submits an official nomination back to Verkhovna Rada for a formal approval vote. [2] While the official nomination of the candidate for the parliamentary approval is still made by the President, the Head of the State, formally, takes no part in the nominee's selection and there is an ambiguity whether the President may turn down the candidate suggested by the parliamentary coalition.

The Prime Minister, following his appointment, nominates other members of the Cabinet (ministers) for approval by the Verkhovna Rada, except the Ministers of the Foreign Affairs and of Defense, who are nominated by the President. The Cabinet of Ministers also nominates the heads of the local state administrations (i.e. governors) to be appointed by the President. The debate on whether the President could hypothetically reject the candidate for the governernorship officially proposed by the Prime Minister is yet to be resolved.

The Prime Minister and his Cabinet could now be dismissed only by the Parliament while formerly the President could dismiss the entire cabinet unilaterally at any time, as it happened in 2005 for Tymoshenko Cabinet.

Main article: Judicial system of Ukraine

• Constitutional jurisdiction
  • The Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The Constitutional Court has been formed on October 18, 1996,[3] following the adoption of a new Constitution. Initially the judges were appointed for 6 years, and by 2005 the term has been expired for the majority of judges, which resulted in the court being de facto not functioning. Following the Constitutional reform, the new judges, which took oath in the parliament on August 4, 2006 were appointed for an indefinite term.
• General jurisdiction
  • The Supreme Court of Ukraine;
  • High specialized courts: the High Arbitration Court of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Вищий господарський суд України), the High Administrative Court of Ukraine;
  • Regional courts of appeal, military courts of appeal, specialized courts of appeal;
  • Local district courts, military garrison courts.

The Constitution of Ukraine provides for trials by jury. This has not yet been implemented in practice. Moreover, some courts provided for by legislation as still in project, as is the case for, e.g., the Court of Appeals of Ukraine. The reform of the judicial branch is presently under way.

• National Bank of Ukraine
• Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine
• Central Election Commission of Ukraine
• National Security and Defense Council

NSDC was originally created in 1992 as the National Security Council, but significantly revamped and strengthened under President Kuchma. The NSDC staff is tasked with developing national security policy on domestic and international matters and advising the president.

President

Parliament

Cabinet of Ministers

Constitutional Court

• Ukraine at Erik Herron's Guide to Politics of East Central Europe and Eurasia hosted at Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at Kansas University