Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The paper reflects on the post-Soviet nation-building projects of the Georgian and Abkhazian ethnic groups through concepts assimilation and mobilization. It analyses colliding constructs of respective national projects: 1. Soviet-time constitutional powers; 2. Educational and linguistic rights and correlates them to the symptoms (not causes) of political decay: exaggerated notions of the actual power of the centralized government; weakening of ‘mass parties’; reduction of the links between state government and segments of population; inability of state to satisfy perceived needs of its human components; loss of charismatic aura earlier enjoyed by key figure(s). The study comprehends nation-building projects through Connor’s three stages of mobilization: the first two – more gradually the process of social mobilization moves, the more time there is for social and national assimilation to work and more social mobilization is postponed, the more quickly its various aspects – language, monetization, mass audience, literacy, voting, urbanization, industrialization must eventually be achieved – corresponding to the Soviet, whereas the third – likelihood is much greater that people will be precipitate into politics with their old tribal loyalties still largely unchanged and it becomes far more difficult to have them think of themselves as members of one new nation – to the post-Soviet period. The research refers to the method of political discourse analysis to reconstruct the changing social-political tendencies and reflects on speeches, official documents, policy papers, and newspaper materials through qualitative analysis. The modernist school of nationalism studies, and instrumentalist approach, is used as theoretical foundation of research.