Political institutions in the post-Soviet de facto States in Comparison: Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh
Political institutions in the post-Soviet de facto States in Comparison: Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh

Summary/Abstract: The article focusses on the political institutions in two post-Soviet de facto states – Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh – which are treated as competitive authoritarian regimes. In this type of political regime, formal political institutions face deliberate interventions from the ruling elite, whereas informal political institutions rise in importance. The article thus focusses not only on political parties, elections, self-government and general constitutional settings, but deals also with informal politics – clientelist networks, informal practices in electoral behaviour and the influence of the patron states, i.e. Armenia and Russia.

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