No. 114: Formal and Informal Political Institutions

Author(s): Nona Shahnazarian, Farid Guliyev, Levan Kakhishvili
Series Editor(s): Lusine Badalyan, Bruno De Cordier, Farid Guliyev, Diana Lezhava, Lili Di Puppo, Jeronim Perović, Heiko Pleines, Abel Polese, Licínia Simão, Koba Turmanidze
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 114
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zürich; Research Centre for East European Studies (FSO), University of Bremen; Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC-Georgia); Center for Eastern European Studies (CEES), University of Zurich; German Association for East European Studies (DGO)
Publication Year: 2020

This issue of the Caucasus Analytical Digest focuses on the interplay between informal and formal institutions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Firstly, regarding Armenia, Nona Shahnazarian looks at the deep-seated cultural roots of clientelism in post-Soviet societies and discusses the efforts by the government of Prime Minister Pashinyan to eradicate the power of oligarchs that persists to date. Secondly, Farid Guliyev looks at how formal institutions in Azerbaijan are largely a façade, although one that is used by the ruling elite to package ex ante informal power arrangements and thus maintain autocratic rule. Thirdly, Levan Kakhishvili examines the shift from the presidential to parliamentary system and electoral system reform in Georgia, and shows how formal and informal institutions complement each other in arguably most advanced reformer in the Caucasus region.

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