ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that this failure was a result of the Chechen government's incapacity to establish a monopoly on violence, submerge or consolidate paramilitary groups, and prevent the warlordism that became its main spoiler. Statebuilding is the process of creating effective government, which involves a monopoly over authoritative binding rule-making, rule enforcement, and violence within the territory claimed by the state. In 1991 Chechnya created a fundamentally new polity based on a new constitution, new identities, institutions, and legitimizing procedures. President Maskhadov had great hope in the privatization of industry, to his mind the only realistic mechanism that would revive the Chechen economy. The state was unable to support the enterprises in trying to restore their pre-war capacities, thus private owners had to step in. The main ideological divisions between Maskhadov's supporters and his opponents concerned domestic and foreign policy and the role of Islam in the government.
