Ukraine is in the midst of a new round of reforms. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party, Servant of the People, swept to victory in 2019, as both a novelty (he is a former comedic actor) and protest vote against economic precarity and the slow pace of anti-corruption reform. Zelenskyy’s government is the first in modern Ukraine to enjoy a sufficient parliamentary majority to govern without coalition and pass laws without allies.
Pragmatically, Zelenskyy’s government understand they have a small time window, as political parties are quick to lose support with Ukraine’s justifiably jaded population. With public urgency, Servant of the People launched a self-described “turbo-mode” of legislating in the first months of their majority. While this process resulted in a flood of passed legislation, detractors and opposition parliamentarians have noted that the Ukrainian government has frequently moved forward with sparse regard for democratic process or civil society input.
