Francis Fukuyama: Ukraine Should Rebuild the State Management System and Eliminate Corruption

By Anastasia Baklan

Francis Fukuyama recently visited Kyiv and Lviv on behalf of a joint initiative between Stanford’s Center for Democracy Development and Rule of Law, the Ukrainian Catholic University’s School of Public Management and CIPE, to kick start the Leadership Academy for Development (LAD) to Ukraine. On February 2, 2017, as an addendum to the lessons, more then 250 representatives of the business community, officials from the state authorities and the Verkhovna Rada, and civil society institutions took part in a public forum on building democracy that delivers.

According to Professor Fukuyama, Ukraine is in the forefront of the battle for democracy and a modern government. Disillusionment arose after the Orange Revolution of 2004, because the transition from a corrupt, undemocratic system to a new, modern democracy was not successful. The forces that came to power in the wake of the 2004 revolution did not know how to rule the country properly, how to combat corruption, and how to ensure the protection of basic civil rights in the country. Professor Fukuyama noted that there is now an awareness that mistakes should not be repeated and that Ukraine should do everything possible for the transition.  Specifically Professor Fukuyama noted that to combat corruption successfully, it is necessary to work cooperatively with the private sector. While there is a strong opinion that all politicians are bad and civil society must remain on the side of these processes and supervise them, but with an approach like this, Ukraine will never achieve a successful government. If the Ukrainian people want to change something, they should go into politics and do it themselves. Professor Fukuyama stressed that in order to improve the system of government, one must participate in it.

Other panelists included Stephen Krasner, Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations, Pavlo Sheremeta, former Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine (2014), Dmytro Shymkiv,  Deputy Head of Presidential Administration, Anna Derevyanko, EBA Executive Director and Vyacheslav Klimov, head of the SUP business association. Panelists introduced their view on why it is so important to build effective communication between government and entrepreneurs to get better reform results and to improve business climate in Ukraine.

Watch a video of the public discussion:

Anastasia Baklan is Communications Specialist for CIPE Ukraine.