포스트소비에트 남코카서스 3국의 비공식 인적 네트워크 (Informal Networks in the Post-Soviet South Caucasus)

서지정보

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초록

This paper analyzes Blat, an informal network of three South Caucasus countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union, focusing on the case of Georgia particular. Blat is a term which appeared in the Soviet times to denote an exchanges of mutual interests, services and connections to solve the chronic material shortages, a phenomenon which naturally occurred as the underground economy continued to prevail. In other words, people would form a social network where they can exchange favors and services between each other. Therefore, Blat is a universal phenomenon which is found in all regions of the former Soviet Union from Central Asia to Russia, and plays a key role in understanding the political, economic and social situation in the Post-Soviet countries, even though more than 20 years have passed after the Soviet Union collapsed. Unlike in Russia and other Post-Soviet region, Blat networks in the South Caucasus is characterized by being rooted in family and kinship structures. While Russian blat has a strong tendency to be formed on friendship and fellowship and lay emphasis on mutual reciprocity, concepts of family honour and paternalism are more important in the Caucasus’s blat. Unexpectedly, in contrast to kinship networks, geography-centered networks in the South Caucasus, which are based on a person’s place of birth, residence or origins to a particular village or region, are of lesser value and magnitude, even though remaining stronger than blat networks based on an ethnic group or a nation. Through the analysis of the blat culture in the employment of public service personnel in Georgia, this paper shows that blat is intimately interwoven with the widespread institution of corruption, hindering social transition and reform, regardless of its proper function in the society as a form of social capital.

영어초록

This paper analyzes Blat, an informal network of three South Caucasus countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union, focusing on the case of Georgia particular. Blat is a term which appeared in the Soviet times to denote an exchanges of mutual interests, services and connections to solve the chronic material shortages, a phenomenon which naturally occurred as the underground economy continued to prevail. In other words, people would form a social network where they can exchange favors and services between each other. Therefore, Blat is a universal phenomenon which is found in all regions of the former Soviet Union from Central Asia to Russia, and plays a key role in understanding the political, economic and social situation in the Post-Soviet countries, even though more than 20 years have passed after the Soviet Union collapsed. Unlike in Russia and other Post-Soviet region, Blat networks in the South Caucasus is characterized by being rooted in family and kinship structures. While Russian blat has a strong tendency to be formed on friendship and fellowship and lay emphasis on mutual reciprocity, concepts of family honour and paternalism are more important in the Caucasus’s blat. Unexpectedly, in contrast to kinship networks, geography-centered networks in the South Caucasus, which are based on a person’s place of birth, residence or origins to a particular village or region, are of lesser value and magnitude, even though remaining stronger than blat networks based on an ethnic group or a nation. Through the analysis of the blat culture in the employment of public service personnel in Georgia, this paper shows that blat is intimately interwoven with the widespread institution of corruption, hindering social transition and reform, regardless of its proper function in the society as a form of social capital.

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