This dissertation examines the social origins, values orientations, moral beliefs, and behavioural strategies of a small sample of successful post-Soviet „de novo‟ firm founders, and argues that entrepreneurial individuals such as those who are the subjects of research, have effected a transformation of the informal institutional framework of Ukraine‟s nascent market sphere. In contrast to the prevailing approach of the literature on post-Soviet transitions, instead of focusing exclusively on the effects of elite-led formal institutional change and reform policy implementation (or its lack), this dissertation presents an alternative „bottom-up‟ perspective on Ukraine's development during the past decade.

On 28 June 1996, almost five years after achieving independence, and after an exceptionally prolonged framing process capped by an all-night marathon session, the Parliament of Ukraine (the "Verkhovna Rada") passed the new state's first Constitution. This document has been widely heralded in Ukraine as confirmation of the permanence of that country's transition to democracy and statehood, and as a blueprint for the next stage of state-building reforms (Tatsiy et. al. 1996). According to such claims, the Constitution establishes ("zatverdzhuye") Ukraine as a European nation-state with a firm system of democratic institutions, and with citizen's rights enshrined in law. As such, it represents the completion of Ukraine's first stage of transition from Soviet rule, and permanently installs a stable political order within which further reforms are to be enacted.