Balancing National Uncertainty and Foreign Orientation - Identity Building and the Role of Political Parties in Post-Orange Ukraine

We link elements of identity-building to the Ukrainian regional clusters and compare them with the outcome of the elections in 2006 and 2007. Detecting changes in party programmes and re-election allows us to make insights into identity-building in Ukraine and in post-communist countries in general. In addition, we develop indicators that measure uncertainty about national identity and orientation towards supra-national identities. Weighting these indicators with election results for oblasts and aggregations at the regional and national level reveals preferences about national identity as well as correlations and shifts in identity-building on a regional level.