Introduction

The chain of events since the South Caucasus Republics gained independence in 1991 inspired authors to write about the region using different themes. Some focus on history and nation building, taking the breaking out of the Russian empire as a central theme. Still others focus on nationalism,or on scouting the trail of different colored revolutions. Following the scent of oil in geopolitics is another favorite topic and publications on the August 2008 war in the Caucasus are beginning to appear. In this case I am interested in reflecting on the recent political history of the South Caucasus Republics using transition as a leading concept. This chapter also serves as a general frame for the next chapters all dealing with either Georgia, Azerbaijan and/or Armenia.

After almost twenty years of transition towards democracy and a free market economy, Georgia and Armenia form hybrid democracies and are considered to be relatively fragile states. Azerbaijan is a stronger and more economically viable state ruled by an authoritarian regime. Of course one's perspective influences interpretation of democracy. American analysts are less critical of the quality of democracy and more charmed by Georgia’ and Azerbaijan's orientation towards the West, than perhaps some of the EU politicians are. These tend to be more critical of the poor human rights situation and the extensive poverty in the South Caucasus. In Europe, certainly after the Russia-Georgia war, the South Caucasus region is often perceived as ‘Russia's backyard’ generating reluctance to get too involved in this shared neighborhood area. Personally, I would prefer to frame the South Caucasus as ‘Europe's front yard’ and have the EU develop more instruments for effective involvement.

Although transition in political science and sociology is an older theme the debate on the ‘transition paradigm’ began anew between 2002 and 2004 after a publication by Thomas Carothers in the Journal of Democracy wherein he summarized the paradigm's characteristics. Besides having the advantage of being a succinct summary, it also has the advantage that local academics have reflected on it. To a certain extent it has become part of the local discourse.