Interested, able and prepared: stakeholders’ influence in local communities during the war in Ukraine

Abstract

The capacity of local actors to step up and exert a positive influence in their communities has been a key focus of international assistance in the contemporary context of overlapping crises. The centralization of powers has appeared to diminish local stakeholders’ influence in crises. This article tests this argument by examining the engagement of different local actors such as civil society, the private sector, and the media, in their communities two years after the start of the war in Ukraine. Our analysis uses individual-level data from an expert survey. The results indicate that the interest of local actors in community affairs is a better explanation than capacity or organizational resilience. Stakeholders’ agility and level of electoral clientelism do not appear to be relevant for local communities. These findings inform us about when and how local actors contribute to democratic and governance processes in times of crisis.