“Good enough” governance and rule of law in Armenia

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of some of the challenges for the establishment of good governance and rule of law rule in Armenia since its independence in 1991. In doing so, the chapter first briefly overviews Armenia’s history since gaining independence, then it provides a conceptual framework defining “good enough” governance (as opposed to good governance) as well as rule of law. It then looks at three major events that tested those two concepts in Armenia: the change of regime (aka “Velvet Revolution” in the country in 2018 and the challenge of Covid-19 pandemic and the full-scale war with Azerbaijan in September–November 2020. Finally, it infers that irrespective of constitutional, legal and institutional reforms introduced throughout the years, there is a still big challenge ahead for Armenia to improve governance and strengthen rule of law in the post-war environment.