Multinationality, Regions and State-Building: The Failed Transition in Georgia

This essay examines Georgia’s stalled transition to democracy following the collapse of the Soviet Union. I argue that Georgia’s failure to build a stable and unified state following its independence cannot be properly understood without considering the impact of regional institutions inherited from the Soviet Union. The dynamic process of independence turned Georgia’s formally functional but largely moribund regional institutions into reactive instruments of fearful ethnic minorities and led to conflict.

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