La funcionalidad de la ciclovía en la idea de la multimodalidad…

A case study analysis represents “an empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in-depth and within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not evident” (Yin 2009: 14). In the context of this thesis, case studies can descriptively illustrate the state and institution building processes of de facto states in a thick historical narrative by carefully considering the developments and fluctuating dependence on patron involvement. This, in turn, sheds more light on direct and indirect patron involvement, which enables a closer engagement with the causal mechanisms that facilitate state and institution building in de facto states.

The selection of an appropriate case study to identify and illustrate causal mechanisms can follow a variety of methodological strategies ranging from randomisation (Fearon & Laitin 2008) to the choice of extreme or deviant cases on the independent variable (Seawright & Gerring 2008). I selected the single case study of this thesis at least partially to ensure result triangulation where the case study

116 offers insights into causal pathways that explain the findings of the quantitative study. This form of result triangulation where a variety of methods are employed to make causal arguments (Olsen 2004) represents a common empirical mixed- methods research strategy, but comes with its own limitations (Seawright 2016). Particularly when the qualitative and quantitative research outcomes are either very similar or different, the combination of the respective findings may be problematic on the basis of the epistemological differences of the methods (Seawright 2016). While Seawright (2016) suggests an integrative mixed methods approach, the triangulation of research outcomes can still be considered appropriate for this thesis as neither approach makes arguments about the final inference supported by the other method, but instead the qualitative methods offer causal pathways that help explain the quantitative findings.

Beyond the goal of result triangulation, Russian patron engagement in Abkhazia’s state and institution building development was purposively selected as the case study of this thesis, because it contains a set of essential attributes associated with the research matter of this thesis. More specifically, the chosen case study covers a set of practical and thematic characteristics that make the study suitable for the research of this thesis, including a degree of state building progress in the de facto state, the presence of a patron state, the availability of primary and secondary sources as well as its location in the post-Soviet space.36 _{Applying these} standards to the de facto states of the South Caucasus and Eastern Europe presents Abkhazia, Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh as the most appropriate case study choices. These regions have a patron, operated as de facto states since the early 1990s, which provided these entities with enough time to develop their state and governance institutions (unlike the Luhansk and Donetsk People Republics) and were accessible for fieldwork (unlike South Ossetia). In terms of state and institution building development, figures 3 and 437 _{demonstrate that Abkhazia is not an outlier} among the de facto states of the post-Soviet space, as it shares similar state and

36 _{The final point can only be justified in so far that the post-Soviet space is a region of particular}

interest to me personally as a researcher and that I wanted to conduct interviews in Russian.

37 _{Both graphs draw from the data of Florea’s (2014) data set, with a restricted focus on the post-}

117 institution building developments with South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria.

In addition to the above-mentioned requirements, the theoretical framework and the patron conceptualisation of this thesis need to be applicable to the case study in question. Russia’s engagement in Abkhazia’s state and institution building endeavour is an appropriate case study in this regard, because it represents varying degrees of patron involvement as well as changes in the de facto state’s dependence on the patron state. According to the conceptualisation of patron states of this thesis, Russia cannot officially be considered Abkhazia’s patron until 1999 (see chapter 3). Thus, the case of Russo-Abkhaz relations has the analytical advantage of capturing how direct and indirect diffusion sources operate with and without the presence of a patron. The case study shows that even when Russia did not act as a patron, there are signs of indirect mimetic, competitive and normative diffusion influences from Russia. Furthermore, the case study highlights the ways in which Russia helped sustain the state and institution building achievements both directly and indirectly from 1999 onwards.

118 Figure 3 State Building in Post-Soviet De Facto States

119 For the sake of transparency, it has to be noted that the selection of the case study was also informed by changes in the research focus of this thesis. In the early stages of the PhD project, I intended to compare Abkhazia and South Ossetia’s state building process and the extent to which the same patron state shapes the developments in two de facto states with arguably different independence intentions. Due to the difficulties of (legally) reaching South Ossetia and acquiring data on the ground, I soon later considered a case comparison of a smaller number of cases that were selected based on state building differences and similarities, while ensuring variation across the independent patron state variable. However, inspired by the in-depth case studies of Transnistria (Blakkisrud & Kolstø 2011) and Somaliland (Richards 2014), I decided that a pathway case (Gerring 2007) encourages closer engagement with the causal mechanisms behind patron involvement in the state building processes of de facto states. The general relationship between the dependent and independent variables tends to be known in pathway case studies and the case study is used to capture the causal process behind this relationship and to test hypotheses (Collier 1993: 108). Thus, Russia’s involvement in Abkhazia from the early 1990s until today serves as the pathway case to identify the causal mechanisms between dependent and independent variables and tease out the direct and indirect patron influences of a patron state on the state and institution building processes in a de facto state.

Even though this thesis engages with a single case, the qualitative research enables the pursuit of comparative analyses throughout the study in form of within- case analyses (see Collier & Mahoney 1996; Gerring 2007).38 _{Building on Prelz} Oltramonti’s (2015) classification of Russo-Abkhaz economic relations, I compare Abkhazia’s state building processes across periods of varying degrees of patron involvement. This form of within-case analysis offers insights into the role of patron states and levels of dependency on particular state building developments at given time periods.

In addition, chapter 8 represents a case-within-a-case that is dedicated to the analysis of Russian direct and indirect engagement in Abkhazia’s education sector.

38 _{Even in single case studies one pursues implicit descriptive comparisons by judging}

120 This supplementary case examination offers a set of additional analytical perspectives on the variations of patron involvement in the state and institution building processes of de facto states and contributes to the theoretical framework of this thesis. First, chapters 6 and 7 offer an overview of Abkhazia’s state and institution building development in its entirety. By examining Abkhazia’s education sector in particular, the case-within-a-case exemplifies direct and indirect patron involvement and bounded agency at hand of one specific state sector. Education represents a basic service in most internationally recognised countries and can serve as an instrument to ensure a level of control and power over a group of people by establishing a degree of legitimacy between the population and the ruling class. In that regard, an analysis of Abkhazia’s education sector can be considered insightful in its own right. At the same time, an exploration of Russian direct and indirect involvement in Abkhazia’s education sector sheds light on the extent of patron engagement in de facto states, because unlike the defence and financial sector of de facto states, education represents a sector where patron involvement is not necessarily expected. Second, the analysis of Abkhazia’s education sector represents an insightful illustrative case study of competitive diffusion playing out in a specific state sector of a de facto state and the extent to which international actors might be prepared to go in supporting de facto authorities with the provision of public services and goods. These insights contribute to the theoretical framework of this thesis by fleshing out the origins, patterns and consequences of competing diffusion sources in de facto states. The chapter, for instance, contributes to the theoretical framework by highlighting that Russian and other diffusion sources do not necessarily directly compete outside of the Gali district but can complement each other.

A limitation of the outlined case study selection relates to its predominant focus on the central de facto government and its governance institutions to capture state and institution building developments in Abkhazia. The inclusion of regional and civil society developments in the analysis would have likely contributed to a more comprehensive picture of state building processes in de facto states and the extent of patron engagement. This criticism has been put forward by Milli Lake (2014: 516), who differentiates between “three distinct levels of governance – the central, local and community levels,” and argues that central governments are not the only

121 settings for state building. Indeed, in the case of Abkhazia, one can observe significant differences in state building trajectories across regions such as Gali and Upper Kodori, that matter particularly in regard to territorial control (see chapter 6) and parent state engagement (see chapter 8). This thesis touches upon some community and local developments in the education chapter (see chapter 8), but further research needs to be conducted to capture the full extent of state building developments in Abkhazia beyond the central government.