Politics & Governance
Institutions that kept working
The prediction in early 2022 was that the Ukrainian state would stop functioning. Understanding why it did not is more useful than celebrating that it did…
Politics & Governance
Elections, governments, parliamentary arithmetic and the institutional reforms that shape the business environment.
Politics & Governance
Governing under martial law, commercially
Martial law changes a number of things a company needs to know about, and most of them are not the ones people expect.
Politics & Governance
Reforming the customs service
Customs has been reformed more often than almost any other Ukrainian institution, which tells you both how important it is and how hard it has been.
Politics & Governance
The registers a foreign company needs to read
Before signing anything here, a company can check who owns the counterparty, what it owes, whether it is in litigation and whether it actually owns the…
Politics & Governance
Digital government and the state in a phone
Ukraine built one of the most complete citizen-facing digital states anywhere. The interesting part is not the app; it is what had to exist underneath it.
Politics & Governance
Judicial reform, attempt by attempt
Ukraine has reformed its judiciary repeatedly. Understanding why it took several attempts explains more than any single verdict on whether it worked.
Politics & Governance
The tax service, and the end of the informal visit
The most important change in Ukrainian tax administration is that fewer inspectors come through the door, and the ones who do were selected by a system.
Politics & Governance
Why local elections matter to a supplier
A change of mayor changes procurement priorities, permit processing and which projects continue. For a company with local contracts this is not politics; it is planning.
Politics & Governance
Opening the land market: a twenty-year argument
The moratorium on selling farmland lasted two decades and was defended by people with a serious case. Understanding that case explains the shape of the eventual…
Politics & Governance
Administering pensions to twelve million people
The largest single line in the budget is paid out monthly to more than a fifth of the population. The administration of it is a logistics…
Politics & Governance
The New Ukrainian School
Ukraine rewrote what a school day looks like: twelve years instead of eleven, competences instead of memorisation, and a different relationship between teacher and pupil.
Politics & Governance
Decentralisation: the reform that changed the map
Of all the reforms of the last decade, decentralisation is the one whose effects I can see from a car window. It gave communities their own…
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