Il Caucaso, transizione politica ed economica. Una analisi transfrontaliera.

Southern Caucasus (Transcaucasia) is a dichotomous region. The states forming this area are characterized by deep dissimilarities, but at the same time they share part of their past and many of their future expectations. A common historical legacy, together with a particular people's Weltanschauung and a geographic contiguity render Georgja, Armenia and Azerbaijan a group of countries that are united in their several differences. The aim of this PhD Thesís is the study of the political and economic transition of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. On the basis of the potitical science, social studies, economic development and the transition scientific literature, some structural indicators have been chosen in order to elaborate a macro-analysis on their present level of democratic and economic development. As for the economic section, comparative analyses of the economic and financial performances have been adopted. The results of this studies and the analysis of the indicators have been submitted to the scrutiny of a group of scholars coming from Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Russian Federation and Europe, composing a so-called DELPHI Group. The main goal was to have an impartial and scientific opinion about the quality of the analysis. The results indicating the different level of the structural development (also summarised in a numerical coefficient) allowed giving the three countries a "democracy score", commonly used by the scientific community. The analysis alIowed to classify Georgia and Armenia as hybrid regimes, in which the potential for sustainable, liberal democracy is unclear, corruption is widespread and presents a major impediment to political and economic development. As for Azerbaijan it was defined as a semi-consolidated authoritarian regme, in which it failed to meet even the minimum standards of electoral democracy, State presence in the economic sector and widespread corruption represent an obstacle for development. Political and economic transition of Transcaucasian countries seems to have a checkered trend, because there are still too many systemic internal fractures characterizing in these countries and too many international components can act and/or dominate their individual choices.