3 - Subnational Politics and Sovereignty in Post-Soviet Georgia

Summary

Exploiting subnational variation in four Georgian regions — Adjara, Abkahzia, Javakheti, and Kvemo-Kartli — this chapter demonstrates how nonstate actors and local powerbrokers can act as a constraint on the central government and thus increase the level of external hierarchy. The chapter also shows that local actors are influenced by similar considerations to the central government. Higher levels of contestation and rent-seeking lead local elites and ethnic political entrepreneurs to support external control over sovereignty. This chapter not only contributes to the literature on international hierarchy but also shows how external actors may influence state-building and interethnic political relationships.