Political Science

Areas of Expertise:

• comparative politics
• policing 
• corruption 
• justice sector reforms
• quality of government
• hybrid regimes

Bio:

I am Associate Senior Lecturer (tenure track) of political science at Lund University, Sweden. My research focuses on law enforcement, judiciary and anti-corruption reforms in transitional and emerging democracies, and I am part of the project “Policing, Schooling, and Healthcare in Comparative and Historical Perspective”, funded by the Swedish Research Council (PI: Johannes Lindvall). I received my PhD from the University of Gothenburg in 2018, and have conducted extensive rounds of fieldwork in Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia. I have previously worked as a research fellow at Goethe University Frankfurt, as well as at ETH Zürich, within a project on “Differentiated Integration in the European Union”. Prior to joining academia, I have worked with Transparency International Georgia and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for International Affairs in Tbilisi.

Publications

Peer-reviewed journal articles:

Berglund, C., & Bolkvadze, K. (2022). Sons of the Soil or Servants of the Empire? Profiling the Guardians of Separatism in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Problems of Post-Communism. E-pub ahead of print. 

Bolkvadze, K. (2020). To Reform or to Retain? Politicians’ Incentives to Clean Up Corrupt Courts in Hybrid Regimes. Comparative Political Studies, 53(3-4), 500-530.

Povitkina, M., & Bolkvadze, K. (2019). Fresh pipes with dirty water: How quality of government shapes the provision of public goods in democracies. European Journal of Political Research, 58(4), 1191-1212.

Bolkvadze, K. (2017). Hitting the saturation point: unpacking the politics of bureaucratic reforms in hybrid regimes. Democratization, 24(4), 751-769.

Bolkvadze, K. (2016). Cherry picking EU conditionality: Selective compliance in Georgia’s hybrid regime. Europe-Asia Studies, 68(3), 409-440.

Chapters in edited volumes:

Bolkvadze, Ketevan & Lebanidze, Bidzina (2016) ‘Building Security Community in the Neighbourhood? Evidence from Georgia’, in Rieker, Pernille (ed.) External Governance as Security Community Building the limits and potential of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bolkvadze, Ketevan & Naylor, Rachel (2015) ‘Popular and Elite Perceptions of the EU in Georgia’, in Bachmann, Veit & Müller, Martin (eds.) Neighbours Looking In: Perceptions of the EU in Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bolkvadze, Ketevan, Bachmann, Veit & Müller, Martin (2014) ‘I am Georgian, therefore I am European: Comparing elite and public perceptions of EUrope in Georgia’, in Chaban, N. & Holland, M. (eds.) Communicating Europe in Times of Crisis: External Perceptions of the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan.

Working Papers:

Povitkina, Marina & Bolkvadze, Ketevan (2017) “Democracy, corruption and public goods provision: the case of water management”. V-Dem Working paper No. 62. Presented at Anxieties of Democracy Workshop, the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, May 21-23, 2017.

Bolkvadze, Ketevan (2015) “Efficiency without Autonomy? Bureaucratic Reforms in Georgia’s Hybrid Regime.” QoG Working Paper No. 2015/17. Quality of Government Institute, Sweden.

Policy reports/papers:

Bolkvadze, Ketevan (2022) Rule of Law as Political Insurance: why pro-European reforms are in the GD’s best interest. Georgian Institute of Politics. 

Bolkvadze, Ketevan (2013) Drams, Laris and Politics: Political Funding Regulations in Armenia and Georgia,Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy NIMD/Clingendael Institute, The Hague.