Podmínky demokratizace v de facto státech: případová studie Abcházie
Conditions of Democratization in De-facto States: Case Study of Abkhazia

Summary/Abstract: De-facto states constitute an interesting anomaly in the international system of sovereign states. No matter how long their control of claimed territory has lasted or how effective their capacities to provide governmental services to its population are, they fail to achieve international recognition. A change in the legitimising strategy adopted by the leaders of de-facto states came with the recognition of Kosovo’s independence by most western powers. In the past, their claims to independence were based primarily on the right to national self-determination, historical continuity and claim to a remedial right to secession, based on alleged human-rights violations. Increasingly, though, these arguments have been supplemented by an emphasis on “democratisation-for-recognition-strategy”. According to this strategy, those states that proved their viability as democratic states should earn their sovereignty. The aim of this article is to demonstrate this strategy on an instrumental case study of Abkhazia. As a result of the study of secondary literature on the topic of de-facto states democratization, supported with field research in Abkhazia, we try to identify those factors which are promoting and on the other hand obstructing a democratization process in such a de-facto state.

• Details
• Contents