Montagnes gatekhili, État gatekhili : gestion fracturée de la forêt alpine et développement post-soviétique en République de Géorgie

While many states at the periphery of the former Soviet Union have pursued decentralization in nearly all areas of governance, this trend is perhaps most notable in natural resource sectors and the effects these reforms have on society. I explore these scalar political, economic, and environmental c...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jesse Quinn
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institut de Géographie Alpine
Series:Revue de Géographie Alpine
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/rga/3613
Description
Summary:While many states at the periphery of the former Soviet Union have pursued decentralization in nearly all areas of governance, this trend is perhaps most notable in natural resource sectors and the effects these reforms have on society. I explore these scalar political, economic, and environmental connections through a qualitative case study of alpine forest governance in the mountains of Georgia. Analyzing a series of thirty-five semi-structured interviews conducted during the summers of 2012 and 2013, I investigate the ways in which state power operates through governance of Georgia’s alpine forests. Like all democracies, the Georgian government oscillates between poles of centralization and decentralization. However, the practices of the Georgian government, as it currently exists through alpine forestry, produces a distinctly fractured (gatekhili in Georgian) form of democracy. The dynamics of the emerging Georgian state as seen through alpine forest governance are informative for understanding the political transition of mountainous post-Soviet states in the 21st century, and contemporary state formation more generally.
ISSN:0035-1121
1760-7426