Introduction

This chapter examines how in post-soviet Armenia a new political class formed and how it was constituted. It focuses on how the liminal or transitory historical, geopolitical or sociocultural conditions of the collapse of the Soviet Union shaped the composition of this emergent political class in Armenia. The chapter raises the question of how a new political class emerges. It utilizes both existing classical theorists as well as resorts to empiricists in the search of more substantial normative definitions of what constitutes a political elite and what are the processes of its emergence in non-Western countries. The chapter also focuses on the endogenous factors – the emergent political class and their construction of the national narrative. It explores how the newly independent republic's political administrations defined and operationalized the country's national interest. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.