Revolutionary Bargain: The Unmaking of Ukraine's Autocracy through Pacting

"Electoral revolutions", of which the Orange Revolution is an example, are a by- product of a protracted and inconclusive struggle among political elites, and they promote democratization only inasmuch as they push elites to a consensus on the new institutional rules. This is illustrated by the dynamics of elite conflict in Ukraine, starting from the founding political crisis of 2000 and tracing the changing institutional preferences of the incumbents and challengers, as well as their conflicting political strategies. Ukraine’s protests in 2004 helped ruling and opposition elites to reconcile their differences and agree on the new power-sharing arrangement embodied in the parliamentary–presidential system