Restoring the social contract: Attitudes on political rights for collaborators in Ukraine

Restoring the social contract and the sense of nation is a fundamental yet fraught necessity after a divisive conflict. It is crucial to understand how citizens evaluate those who were formerly seen as on the enemy side and to what extent these people are accepted as members of the polis. This article looks at the broad category of collaborators and asked who is granted political rights. Based on theories of the social contract, we argue that collaborators will be judged on their degree of betrayal of the obligations of a citizen during the war and subsequent expression of affiliation to the nation after war. These questions are examined in the topical case of Ukraine using a survey experiment embedded in an original survey of 1,500 respondents fielded in April 2023. The findings inform planning for overcoming divisions and polarization in Ukraine and creating a sense of single national identity.