Georgia
Georgia is a republic located in the South Caucasus. It exhibits mid-range performance across all Global State of Democracy (GSoD) categories of democracy. Over the past five years, it has experienced significant improvement in Access to Justice but notable declines in Credible Elections and Freedom of Expression. Some of these concerns are due to allegations of vote-buying, abuse of state resources, and voter intimidation during some election cycles, as well as a hostile environment for media. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Georgia endured years of political instability and a severe economic collapse, but is now an upper-middle-income country and a consistently mid-performing democracy. Especially since the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, much of Georgian public policy has been oriented towards advancing Euro-Atlantic integration, including aiming for membership in NATO and the European Union. Although these processes have spurred significant foreign direct investment and economic growth, in recent years the economy has become increasingly dependent on remittances from the 23 per cent of the labor force that works outside the country.
Georgia is overwhelmingly composed of ethnic Georgians (86 per cent or the population), but has sizable Azerbaijani, Armenian, Abkhaz, Ossetian and other smaller minorities. Ethnic minorities’ grievances in the early years of independence strengthened separatist Abkhaz and Ossetian movements, leading to the Georgian Civil War (1991-1993). Russia intervened on behalf of Abkhaz and Ossetian separatists, and the war ended after the displacement of roughly 300,000 people -- primarily ethnic Georgians -- from the self-declared and largely unrecognized Republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Then in 2008, Russia baited an incautious Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili into providing an excuse to launch a full-scale war, which resulted in Russia establishing de facto control over both separatist republics and displacing an additional 135,000 Georgians and Ossetians. As of 2022, roughly 286,000 Georgians (eight per cent of the population), are registered as internally displaced people, and hold an uncertain place in Georgian society. Although the overwhelming majority of Georgians see Russia as a threat, far-right movements as well as the powerful and influential Georgian Orthodox Church occasionally find common cause with Russia on issues of national identity and opposition to LGBTQIA+ rights. Georgia performs in the high range on Gender Equality, electing its first woman president in 2018 and implementing a gender quota in parliament in 2020.
For the past decade, Georgian politics have been dominated by the United National Movement (UNM) and the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has held national power since defeating UNM in 2012. Since then, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is the head of the UNM and Georgia’s richest man, has been Georgia’s de facto ruler, despite having only intermittently held office. Although the parties largely agree ideologically, identity-based polarization has become intense in recent years, and government - attacks on media and civil society organizations seen to be unacceptably pro-UNM increased sharply in 2021 and 2022.
Georgia’s trajectory in the next five years will be determined by progress towards its long-term goal of EU membership and whether the current or future government can address voters’ most pressing concerns of unemployment and the high cost of living, assuming that Georgian Dream does not change course. The challenge posed by the massive influx of antiwar and draft-dodging Russians in 2022 could impact Social Group Equality as the government negotiates this new economic reality. Finally, it will be important to watch Freedom of Expression in light of recent efforts to clamp down on critical voices in media, civil society, and politics.
Monthly Event Reports
March 2024 | Electoral changes go through over presidential veto
Parliament voted to override a presidential veto and change Georgia’s electoral code on 19 March, transferring the authority to nominate candidates for the Chairman and members of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) from the president to the speaker of the parliament and lowering the threshold for parliamentary approval. The amendments also abolish the position of Deputy Chairman, which was the formal representative of the parliamentary opposition in the CEC. Opposition political parties and domestic CSOs argued the amendments damage the CEC’s neutrality, are contrary to the conditions of its European Union membership application and contradict recommendations from the Venice Commission. The ruling Georgian Dream party argued the changes were necessary to prevent the opposition from “sabotaging” the CEC before this year’s elections.
December 2023 | Georgia’s eminence grise comes out of the shadows
Billionaire and former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili announced his formal return to politics as ”honorary chairman” of the ruling Georgian Dream party on 30 December. Ivanishvili founded Georgian Dream in 2012 and served as prime minister before his first retirement from political life in 2013, before returning from 2018 to 2021 as party chairman. Analysts and opposition parties say Ivanishvili has remained the most powerful person and prime decisionmaker in the country throughout this time, and the European Union’s condition of “deoligarichization” for Georgia’s membership is widely interpreted to refer to an end of Ivanishvili’s personal unofficial political control. The analyst Gia Khukhashvili argued that Ivanishvili’s return to an official political position is an attempt to technically circumvent this requirement, avoid any international sanctions for behind-the-scenes political activities, and perpetuate his unofficial control over the country’s government.
November 2023 | New abortion restrictions worry health advocates
Women’s rights activists and public health experts condemned the Ministry of Health’s decision to mandate counselling by a psychologist and social worker before a woman can obtain an abortion. The procedures were updated in October and will come into effect on 1 January 2024, but neither domestic nor international health organizations were consulted on the change and Georgian media did not hear of it until 7 November. The new procedures run contrary to international public health recommendations, and domestic and international advocates worried that they would only lead to an increase of unsafe, illegal abortions.
October 2023 | EU praises, civil society condemns new broadcasting laws
Georgia’s parliament passed amendments to the country’s broadcasting law on 20 October to bring it in line with the European Union’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive as part of its EU accession process. While the EU Ambassador praised the amendments, local and international civil society have condemned them, as the grant regulatory authority to the Georgian National Communications Commission, an institution seen by experts and rights watchdogs as insufficiently independent from the government. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Transparency International – Georgia worry the new law will be used to target media critical of the government.
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