The Role of the Ruling Elite on Armenia's Choices of Integration Projects: Institutional Preferences
The Role of the Ruling Elite on Armenia's Choices of Integration Projects: Institutional Preferences

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines elite-led domestic factors that pushed Armenian authorities to choose Russian rather than European-led integration path. To make this idea more comprehensive, the paper will focus first on the preconditions and reasons of elite formation in Armenia and then on the role of elite on Armenian economic and political institutions. The institutional framework shaped by elite has great influence not only on domestic policies but also on foreign policy choices. The central conceptual premise of the article is Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s theoretical concepts of “extractive and inclusive political and economic institutions” developed in their co-authored book “Why Nations Fail: The Origin of Power, Prosperity and Poverty”. The existence of extractive economic and political institutions in Armenia is not a spontaneous phenomenon, but they are rooted in post-Soviet history of Armenia and particularly in post-Nagorno Karabakh war political processes. Finally, the paper will argue that the institutional preferences of ruling elite can be used by external powers to export the values (authoritarian or democratic) to which they adhere. Eventually, this is one of cornerstone factors that, on the one hand, can explain the problems and challenges that the EU faced while supporting and disseminating democratic values in Armenia, and, on the other hand, Russia's assertive foreign policy towards Armenia.

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