The post-Soviet patrimonial state inherited by Ukraine is like an Octopus with multiple tentacles. One is corruption, another is procurement, another is the judiciary, another the civil service and so on. The reform strategy that emerged after 2014 is like trying to control an Octopus by tying up all of its tentacles. Instead, Ukraine needs to have an open and candid debate about the body of the Octopus, not just the tentacles. The problem is political, so are the solutions. It requires changing the way political power is exercised and the way that citizens relate to the state.
In 2014 Ukraine had a revolution which stopped in its tracks an attempt to create an autocratic regime. This was the culmination of the 23-year post-independence struggle to build a different country free of the extractive institutions which had plagued the period of the Soviet Union. These extractive institutions were economic and political and they posed two challenges:
