Democratisation and political regimes in de facto states: a comparative analysis of levels of freedom and fairness in parliamentary elections in Abkhazia (2022) and South Ossetia (2019)
Date
2023
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Over the past 30 years, Abkhazia and South Ossetia’s remarkable endurance has made them well-known cases
on the list of de facto states. They have held regular elections, adopting an organisation that mimics that of
recognised states, with a political arena invested by candidates nominated by parties and regulated by monitoring
bodies, all within a legal framework. However, notwithstanding their notable similarities, the two de facto states
would appear to have developed two very different ways of doing politics. While Abkhazia seems to have
displayed evidence of a genuine political life, South Ossetia has espoused a "façade" regime, with ostensibly
democratic bodies that in reality conceal an authoritarian style of rule. The research question underlying this study
is therefore as follows: how is it to be explained that Abkhazia has apparently developed genuine democratic
features, whereas they appear to be merely a façade in South Ossetia?
This research falls within the scope of the literature on de facto states and is intended to fill a theoretical gap with
domestic issues that are still under-addressed in favour of macro issues. Furthermore, this research has integrated
the literature on democratisation and political regimes originally applied to recognised states, insofar as many de
facto states have shown similar operating features.
Drawing upon a comparative case study of the levels of freedom and fairness during the latest parliamentary
elections in Abkhazia (2022) and South Ossetia (2019), and supported by the results of eight semi-structured
interviews, this research aimed first of all at providing an initial discussion of the type of political regime in force
in these two de facto states. Preliminary results have demonstrated that Abkhazia has adopted a hybrid form of
regime, and that the concept of competitive authoritarian regime would seem to be more appropriate than that of
ethnocracy, which has long been attributed to it. As regards South Ossetia, the elections revealed a total lack of
freedom and fairness, favouring the hypothesis of a fully authoritarian regime. The second part of this research
enabled the identification of seven potential factors to explain the discrepancies of the two de facto regimes
types : the geography of the territory (F1), the state of the economy (F2), the Soviet legacy (F3), nationalism (F4),
patron state interference (F5), international aid for the development of civil society (F6) and independence
aspirations (F7). From a theoretical point of view, this research has shed light on an essential aspect of the
political life of de facto states: elections. Furthermore, it has paved the way for future research into the question of
political regimes and how literature applied to recognised states can provide valuable assistance. From a practical
point of view, this research has confirmed the difficulty of such an enterprise, where methodological obstacles
must not give rise to superficial applications of democratic factors, calling for semantic and scientific prudence.
Finally, this research paves the way for further discussion on the façade of the South Ossetian regime, the
components of which seem to reveal a more complex reality, while the increased unfairness of elections in
Abkhazia seems to nuance the eulogies about its democratic nature, stressing the importance of not considering
political regimes as immutable entities, but as constantly fluctuating on the political regime continuum.