Subnational Politics and Identity in the Post-Soviet States

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The politics of the former Soviet states are often analyzed from the vantage point of the influence of the center on the periphery. This framing overlooks the significant, often informal or “hybrid”, impact of regional actors and movements on state-level political stability and economic development. The papers on this panel analyze center-periphery relationships from a variety of perspectives, exploring the continuities and transformations between the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. This includes the role of Soviet legacies on the informal nature of contemporary identity and distributive politics. Furthermore, the papers explore “elite agency” on the periphery across regime types. In the democratic Republic of Georgia, informal leverage gained through the alignment of regional leaders with oligarchic networks is shown to have distortionary effects on subnational fiscal transfers. In the Russian Federation, the subnational authoritarian turn starting with the abolition of gubernatorial elections in 2004 is analyzed to assess the impact on representation and the diffusion of dominant party power. Finally, the identity politics of the Baltic states are compared in respect to their governance of citizenship in the face of demographic declines following the Soviet collapse. The papers on this panel illustrate the continued relevance of Soviet understanding of ethnic identity and norms of informal politics and behaviors in center-periphery relations and, moreover, their utilization by political actors who lack access to the formal institutions of power in the region.

Sub Unit

• Politics/Law

Chair

• Kyle Estes, Bradley U

Papers

• The Language of Giving: Ethnic and Distributive Politics in Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli Region - Kyle Estes, Bradley U

• Who Governs?: Russian Regional Elite Selection Pre- and Post-2004 - Kathleen Gergely, Indiana U Bloomington

• Are Equalizing Transfers Really Equalizing?: Oligarchs and Regional Development in the Republic of Georgia - Zaur Kapanadze, Texas Tech U

• Governance and Citizenship in Emigration Societies: The Baltic Experience - Colin Roy Johnson, Idaho State U

Discussant

• Adam Charles Lenton, Wake Forest U