Interpreting the regional effect in Ukrainian politics

Multivariate analysis of political values and voting behaviour demonstrates beyond a doubt that the 'regional effect' in Ukraine is not simply the consequence of other factors having regional dimensions. True, more ethnic Russians live in eastern Ukraine than in the west of the country, and true more people are employed in heavy industry in the east, but region exerts an independent impact on political beliefs even when factors such as ethnicity and occupational sector are controlled for. This does not in and of itself explain the significance of the regional effect in Ukrainian politics, however. As political geographers are keen to stress, place matters in politics, but it matters in different ways, depending on the historical, physical and socio-cultural context. This investigation has gone some way towards illuminating the import of this 'regional effect' in the Ukrainian context.