Specifics of 'path-dependent' development on the example of Georgian regions

Abstract

Path dependence is a specific research approach for analyzing the relationship between past decisions, the current state, and the future. Its origins can be traced back to the 1980s, when two American economists, Brian Arthur, and Paul David, observed through the example of product-specific development trajectories that free market mechanisms do not always, as previously assumed, lead to the most efficient use of available resources. These researchers discovered that historical conditions and random, seemingly insignificant phenomena (e.g., the strange behavior of company managers, spontaneous decisions of customers, or even non-economic conditions, including unexpected large-scale phenomena: outbreaks of wars or pandemics, which affected the condition of specific companies by influencing global trends and the economic prosperity of countries) played an essential role in the dissemination of 'inferior' technologies or standards. The concept was very quickly applied to other scientific disciplines. It is now used to explain economic, socio-cultural, and spatial processes. It makes it possible to answer why specific structures evolve in a particular direction and what causes this direction to be perpetuated, despite other, objectively better, ways of achieving the set goal. Its assumptions shed new light on the sustainability of specific structures under 'new' development trajectories. The above exploratory possibilities make path dependency very interesting in the context of research on the systemic transformation of post-Soviet countries. The perception offered by it of the identified mechanisms and causal relations allows us to understand the primary reasons for the difficulties during the entry of countries and their regions into the post-Soviet development path (Arthur, 1989; Gwosdz, 2004; Dzionek-Kozłowska, 2009; North, 2014; Dzionek-Kozłowska, 2015; Mieleszko, 2020). Within the framework of this presentation, its author will present and explain the process of development of Georgian mkhareebi using the main theoretical assumptions of the mentioned concept. She will relate her considerations to the results of quantitative and qualitative analyses of the level and dynamics of socio-economic development of Georgian regions, which she conducted within the framework of her doctoral thesis and research project, funded by the Polish National Science Centre. The presentation will conclude with the author's typology of regional development trajectories and recommendations for Georgia's regional policy. The time range of the statistical analysis of the level and dynamics of the socio-economic development of Georgia's regions was made based on data from 2006-2019. However, when examining the determinants of the process, reference was made to earlier years.  The spatial scope of the work covers Georgia in its first-degree administrative division, according to which the state's territory is divided into two autonomous republics (Abkhazia and Adjara), nine regional units, and one city distinguished by the rights of a region - Tbilisi. Due to the ongoing Russian occupation of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region, these units were excluded from the analysis. The research used both quantitative and qualitative methods. The most important of these include the following: Linear ordering method, thanks to which, based on Walesiak's generalized measure of GDM1 distance, the level of socio-economic development of individual regional units was determined; Indicators of dynamics: absolute increases, and chain indices, which were used to determine the medium-term rate of socio-economic change in the regions; The historical-descriptive method with a chronology is used to analyze the identified mechanisms and causal relationships.   Acknowledgment  The study results from research project No.2018/31/N/HS4/00178, funded by the National Science Centre.