Download or read book The Political Economy of Independent Ukraine written by H. van Zon and published by Springer. This book was released on 2000-11-30 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Political Economy of Independent Ukraine analyses the reasons for the abysmal economic performance of Ukraine during the 1990s. The main thesis is that economic development was blocked by a set of parasitic mechanisms at all levels of the economy that prevented the development of value-added economic activities. These parasitic mechanisms already developed under Soviet rule ('beating the system' by redistributing goods and services while disregarding formal rules) became a widespread practice.