Theoretically, the period of the initial accumulation of capital should be over by now, as well as the kind of politics that typically accompanies it. Today most powerful figures in Ukraine officially declare that they are well-off. At the same time, no one stops short of adding to his possessions, even if this is done by draining the already depleted state budget. For two weeks now the Great Britain has been raging over the impudence of its officials who misappropriated thousands of pounds spending them on their own needs, whereas in Ukraine the material published by the newspaper Delo on Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, who issued a decree to secure for himself a state-provided car and an office in the building of parliament for the rest of his life, went virtually unnoticed. This innovation, which was adopted back when Lytvyn headed the Verkhovna Rada for the first time, applies also to his successors. What causes this abnormal greed in Ukrainian politicians? We have asked our regional experts to answer this question.
Sofia HRABOVSKA, head of the Psychology Department, Ivan Franko Lviv National University:
“Our political elite is comprised of people who have achieved this lofty status relatively recently. What causes their abnormal greed? This is the psychology of a nouveau riche. Furthermore, worries caused by instability and the fear of this instability make them want to accumulate — everything and at once. “An English proverb says that it takes three generations to make a gentleman. Ukrainian politicians do not have this; they lack the tradition and the foundation to build on.
“If society is unstable, one develops a desire to grab everything at once and keep it for oneself or pass it to one’s heirs. Why isn’t Ukrainian society adequately reacting to things like this? Because there is serious distrust of the law and its enforcement. We don’t have civil society. People know what we have: there is law, but it’s different for different people. In other words, laws exist but they can be safely violated. “Unfortunately, what we also have in our society is a permission to indulge in corruption, something that has been confirmed by numerous popular surveys. There is an extremely high correlation between what a person is inclined to give as a bribe and receive as a bribe. Corruption causes people to try and have their way using money everywhere. “In general, Ukraine has a very low level of civil activity, because after the Orange Revolution people have become disillusioned and distrustful. According to surveys, the level of trust in all politicians without exception is very low. That is why ordinary citizens watch the TV, listen, and then talk among themselves in the kitchen. What’s next? The current mentality is that we ordinary Ukrainians have little say. These things add up to put us in the situation we are in.”
Natalia MATSEVKO, psychologist, lecturer, Department for Practical Psychology, Volodymyr Hnatiuk Ternopil National Pedagogical University:
“Greed is a purely human vice that has suddenly come to dominate society. The philosophy of affluent life has taken the lead, and opposition to it on the part of any individual is tantamount to ostracism.
“One especially popular myth today is that money is an equivalent of happiness. The pursuit of profit, which is a guiding force for many people now, speaks of a humanity crisis. If a person lives by the principles ‘Everything is permitted’ and ‘What can’t be bought with little money can be purchased with a lot of it,’ sooner or later he will face serious problems. Today we are witnesses to these problems: the economic slump, financial and political instability, interpersonal conflicts, corruption, etc.
“Greed, treachery, and repressions make up the classical cocktail, the classical format of Ukraine’s politics. Greed has always been the leading element here. It is the predominant component in any activities of Ukraine’s power-wielding circles. A system of repression regulates how far they can go in pursuit of their greed, while any conflicts are resolved by treachery, mercenariness, and corruption. This ‘gold standard’ existed before and during the Communist era and it has survived to our day.
“Today we are witnesses to the abnormal growth of greed in our political elite, which has become the number one national security threat. When it is about your personal possessions or capital, it is one thing. But it is a totally different thing when we are talking about public property that has been earned by hard labor.
“What are the causes behind this phenomenon? Our politicians’ greed is arguably caused by the desire to justify the social stereotype: if you hold a high office, you must live accordingly and your financial situation must match your status. It is a known fact that a person becomes accustomed to good things very quickly, so he needs to always seek out opportunities and resources to meet his ever growing needs.
“A person whose values are the good, respect, and love will, above all, care about the well-being of his constituents, people who trust him, and whose interests he has agreed to defend. This person will work for their benefit and for the sake of his own self-perfection, rather than concern himself with material gain only. The thought that there is nothing wrong with taking a little from others because they will have plenty left will never cross this person’s mind.
“If a person sees that he is lagging behind other people in something, it is natural for him to envy them. However, this person has something others don’t have, and he is not going to share it. Let them envy him. Therefore, greed may also be caused by compensation for one’s complexes. If a person wields power, he has enough leverage and easy access to public property. Why not use it? And politicians do use it not only for the good of the people but also to fill their own coffers.
“It is obvious that the reluctance to be a black sheep forces a person into going with the crowd. Why should you swim upstream if this is hard and you alone will not change anything? On the other hand, why change anything if certain traditions are already in place? You shouldn’t break with traditions, according to popular wisdom.
“Furthermore, there is always the justification: I’m just a small guy, I can’t do anything, and anyway one can’t go against the system. It is easier to be like everyone else. This creates an impression that if a person finds his way into politics, he is infected with a contagious disease with no vaccine available to combat it.
“Naturally, we can speak about greediness as a trait of character that has been shaped since early childhood years, through school, and into adulthood. The conditions a given person found himself in, in particular what regards access to resources and power, are conducive to this trait. It takes an indeed highly moral and strong-willed person to withstand this temptation when it’s so close.
“In other words, the causes behind a Ukrainian politician’s greed reside, above all, in him and his reluctance to make feasible changes.
“Why isn’t society reacting to this? Perhaps because it is impossible to uproot this evil quickly after it has been thriving for so many years. At the same time, people want to see the results immediately. Furthermore, if there are failures, they are no encouragement in reaching a set goal.
“The cause for inaction may also lie in our naivety: we believe that with time things will change even without our intervention. There is also a wrong attitude: what can be done if injustice, lies, and hypocrisy rule supreme everywhere? Finally, who will have to initiate these changes and why should I be the one to do it? The fear of assuming responsibility leads to society’s passive stand. Thus, it is just to say that the one who does not do anything commits the biggest mistake because he thinks he can’t do much.”
Oleksandr MUZYKA, dean, Department of Social and Psychological Sciences, Ivan Franko Zhytomyr State University:
“There is a difference between democracy in Ukraine and in the West. This is despite the fact that in Ukraine democracy emerged earlier than in the USA. In the Zaporozhian army otamans and hetmans even covered their heads with ashes in order to relieve certain psychological dissonance or ease an internal conflict. Mind you, they had the highest authority and power, although all had to be equal.
“In Europe and America there are traditional, institutionalized ways for people to leave top positions. Ex-presidents and ex-prime ministers head various foundations and can return to politics. Ukraine, however, lacks a tradition of removal from power, so the primeval, instinctive reaction to someone who has stepped down is to completely ignore this person or demolish all his achievement with unsparing criticism. That is why at the instinctive level the people who now wield power would like to avoid this. They are doing things that will keep them linked to power and the state so that they will not be completely thrown out of this process and left in oblivion.
“There are laws on personal pensions and certain other things but these are all only emerging. All leading politicians are, in principle, fairly well-off, so the things that keep them linked to power after they leave their offices serve as attributes of their former status.
“It is my conviction that Ukraine will eventually develop some forms of appreciation for people like this and, perhaps, they will be spared criticism, while Ukrainian citizens develop an understanding that a person who has devoted a part of his life to public service and has been open to criticism deserves a certain compensation from society.
“Whatever they say about the Orange Revolution now, virtually all politicians have changed since then; they have started thinking about what will happen later and have become open to criticism.
“I don’t think that our society overlooks politicians’ behavior in some special way. Ukrainians discuss and assess their actions, but at the same time people feels that in certain aspects we need to grant them immunity and a credit of societal respect. I would not speak about ‘abnormal’ greed of certain political leaders because, I’m repeating myself here, they are affluent people and for them certain additional acquisitions in terms of capital or benefits are not especially important.
“If, however, we want to speak about certain symptoms of greediness, I believe that these can be attributed to the environment from which these people emerged. If we compare our situation with Great Britain, politicians there usually come from families of politicians, aristocrats, or affluent citizens, while most of our political leaders lived in poverty in their early childhood years. Thus, these people’s subconscious may play tricks on them, even though they typically attribute this behavior to some other causes. Anyway, a person who grew up in poverty will make decisions that are similar to the habits of those who survived a famine.
“I believe that we would have scandals over some of their acts. However, against the backdrop of our big political rows, these acts seem minor and do not merit a large-scale reaction. If we had a lull in this area now, the acts I’ve mentioned would cause a scandal.
“I believe that most politicians in Ukraine are aware that the stage of controversial moves and personal confrontation has to give way to the norms of societal recognition and a search for unity. It is my deep conviction that despite the attitudes prevalent among our politicians now, they are getting closer to an understanding that they live in one country and need to unite and cooperate.
“The laws of mass media have been transferred onto political life. Mass media are interested in controversy, scandals, hot news, etc. Who would be interested in routine work, negotiations, and compromises? Who would take interest in people that are doing all this? The people who enjoy political limelight are not ‘working horses,’ i.e., people who are constructively and actively working for the sake of unity and the state, but individuals with extreme behavior.
“If a person is calm and normal, it is of no interest to anyone. However, if someone has ostentatious or aggressive behavior and is between the norm and pathology, he immediately becomes the focus of attention on part of the press and television. Mass media people should not take offense, because they are the ones who are introducing the fashion for marginal types of people, although these people are not decisive in society. The bulk of society is made up of normal people, not distinguishable through their extravagant, extraordinary acts, but oriented toward cooperation, creation, and compromise. I believe that eventually people like this will become our leaders.”
Hanna KOLOKHINA, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Social Research Center:
“This is no mystery that additional benefits are perceived in Ukraine as obvious perquisites of power. People believe that politicians make careers in order to obtain certain privileges and financial well-being, while politicians often confirm this belief with their actions. And then we face the bewildering reasoning of our electorate when it votes for people noted for their self-interest and corruption. As an explanation of their choice, people say they elect the ‘sated’ ones, i.e., those who have stolen enough and, perhaps, will now do something for them. If you elect new and ‘hungry’ ones, they will only be concerned with their own gain.
“There is another widespread stereotype that would shock any European: a certain politician stole but he ‘shared’ the stolen goods with others. In general, our citizens are quite nonchalant about the power-wielding officials enriching themselves and granting themselves privileges. They are only concerned with things that have a direct bearing on their own well-being, such as utility rates, food prices, and transportation fares. In this case they can join a rally or other protests. However, they offer only a weak reaction to official’s corruption, possibly because we don’t have the custom of counting money in someone else’s pockets.
“At the same time, officials, especially those who came to power after 2004 on the wave of the Orange Revolution, are not afraid of popular protests. Moreover, they have learned how to manipulate them to suit their interests.
“Nevertheless, the very system of privileges for officials has remained closed—edicts and orders are being issued in secret and no one is going to make them available to public. It is worth recalling that Yulia Tymoshenko, soon after she rose to power, tried to strip ex-President Leonid Kuchma of unjustified privileges. However, her fellow party members gave the idea only cold acceptance, perhaps remembering that one day they would also be exs.”
Ruslan DZHAVADOV, acting head of the SMS-Monitoring Analytical Center, Mykolaiv:
“The abnormal greed of our politicians has deep roots. Nearly all of them, except perhaps Arsenii Yatseniuk and a couple of other fairly young politicians, have matured in Soviet times when public display of riches was not welcome. In independent Ukraine the situation has been turned around. Now the state is not one of workers and peasants, as the USSR claimed itself to be, but entirely different. I would call contemporary Ukraine a criminal-oligarchic state because those who have power now in this country are millionaires and billionaires.
“According to some very reserved estimates, nearly five percent of Ukrainian tycoons own 95 percent of the national riches, while half of what Ukraine has belongs to several dozen clans.
“The politicians who have been on top of Ukraine’s political Olympus do not want to lose the things they enjoyed while in office. They got accustomed to material perquisites: high salaries, cheap cafeteria, state-provided summer cottages and cars, and many other things. They are unlikely to lose attachment to these. This is why we see orders like the one issued by Lytvyn that guarantee that ex-speakers of the Verkhovna Rada will keep their state-provided offices, cars, security, etc. even after resignation.
“Let us stop and think: Why do they need it all? Because later they will not be able to live without this and because eventually they would like to return to politics. They often do. Look: Lytvyn and Oleksandr Moroz twice headed parliament, while Yanukovych is a two-time ex-prime minister of Ukraine. Think also about Kuchma’s appeal to parliament when he asked to grant him the pension of a former MP because the pension ex-MPs get is higher than the presidential one.
“Our MPs have taken good care of themselves. Either in parliament or retired, they will not be hurting for money. After the recent ‘curtailment’ of privileges they feel they have made it for themselves. You know better than I do how efficient our parliament is. I believe that in a country where a large part of the population lives in poverty, the luxurious and ostentatious lifestyle of its highest officials is proof that the country is not democratic.
“Officials in oblast centers, cities, and raions try to copy lifestyle. A friend of mine recently returned from Sweden. He told me that he saw a city mayor riding a bicycle. In Ukraine you wouldn’t see anything like this because mayors use imported cars.
“Corruption, lack of restraint, and lawlessness have become the norm today. After coming to power, many officials are not thinking about what they can do for the weal of the people, oblast, city, or raion, but only about how they can profit themselves as soon as possible. Ihor Nikolaienko, acting head of the Nova Odesa Raion State Administration in Mykolaiv oblast, was recently arrested while receiving a $300,000 bribe. Similar examples are found in other regions of Ukraine.
“Seneca said these wise words: ‘The poor want something, the rich, many things, and the greedy, everything.’ An experienced psychiatrist I know once said that it would many a Ukrainian politician would do well if they undergo treatment against greediness. However, this is unlikely to help them. The millionaires and billionaires who have reached Ukraine’s power Olympus will hardly understand the people who have elected them. This situation will persist until the people elect truly moral, patriotically minded politicians. As long as love of money remains the main criterion of morality and patriotism, we will be waiting in vain for changes in Ukraine. Nonetheless, the elections are round the corner, and our people stand a change of changing their lives for the better.”
Olesia KYRYLENKO, PhD in sociology, Rivne:
“This issue is worth considering from several perspectives. First, in other countries the standard of living that the middle class has is equivalent to the standard of living of our higher class. The model of integration and society development that Ukraine has adopted comes from the West.
“In other words, in order to raise the standard of living by an order of magnitude we have two options—economic exploitation and political power. The salaries that the MPs receive (17,000–20,000 hryvnias per month) are not enough for the higher class that lives as an elite. That is why they are using an authoritarian regime and supervision we have inherited from the Soviet bureaucratic system.
“The problem of economic and political state power is also noteworthy. The problem is that in the Soviet system the economy and politics were merged and the then authorities purified them. The current slogan about the separation of business and power is speculative. Naturally, there are intentions to free the economy from state control. But, on the other hand, there is the huge tax burden.
“Second, according to contemporary social scientists, the public opinion no longer exists as such. Instead, there is the point of view of leaders—mass media and the authorities, which act in tandem. This is what influences society. Using certain facts in providing information to the public, politicians manipulate the so-called public opinion.
“Third, it is sometimes inappropriate to compare relationships in the Western European political space and Ukraine. In our country the political culture of society is not only low—it is archaic. Understandably, it is no match for Western countries. The thing is that most people do not have sufficient private property to feel free in economic terms, while poverty is also a certain type of thinking, a dogmatic one.
“In Ukraine 40 percent of the population live in rural areas and 20 percent, in small cities. Their social behavior hinges on everyday problems they are busy dealing with. That is why it is easy to impose a certain belief on this type of citizens. A situation of this kind is conducive to manipulations. Meanwhile, in higher education institutions political science has been part of the curricula for a mere 10 years.”
