The Challenges of Post-Soviet Transformation in Georgia: Democratization and Its External and Domestic Rivals
Abstract
The democratization process in Georgia, starting with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and declaring independence in 1991, has come through the rocky terrain, with ups and downs, struggling with the internal (nationalism, ethnic fragmentation, state weakness and fragility, weak party-politics) and external (Russia’s grip on the Near Abroad, hence on Georgia in the geopolitically strategic region of the South Caucasus, intersection of the great powers’ interests and proxy clashes in the region in general and in Georgia in particular) challenges. This paper claims that the challenges of democratization process in Georgia should be highlighted at the intersection of external and internal threats; hence the widely acclaimed visions of triple (see: Offe, 2004) and quadruple (see: Kuzio, 2001) models of transformation describing the processes of democratization under state-building and nation-building processes should be pinned down to the analysis of causes of fragmentation of [political] public sphere in order to uncover intersections of the internal and external threats to democracy, which have undermined the process of democratization and unleashed the trends of populism and illiberalism.References
• Beasley R, Snarr M (2013) Domestic and International Influences on Foreign Policy: A Comparative Perspective. In: Beasley R, Kaarbo J, Lantis JS, and Snarr M.T (eds) Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective – Domestic and International Influences on State Behaviour. CQpress, Sage Publications, 313-338.
• Buzan B. (1998) Security, the State, the "New World Order" and Beyond, Columbia University Press, New York.
• Buzan, B., Waever, O. and Wilde, J. (1998). Security, A New Framework for Analysis, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
• Cobaugh, P. (2018). WHITE PAPER: A Five-Point Strategy to Oppose Russian Narrative Warfare, May 13 (https://www.hstoday.us/white-papers/83285/ Accessed on 15.05.2018)
• Connaway L, Powell R (2010) Basic Research Methods for Librarians, 5th edn; Santa Barbara, California; Denver, Colorado; Oxford, England. Greenwood Publishing Group.
• Cornell, S.E. (2018). The Impact of the Ukraine and and Syria Conflicts on the Geopolitics of the South Caucasus, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 231-265
• Cecire MH (2013) Security and Symbolism: Georgia’s NATO Aspirations in Perspective. In: Kakachia K and Cecire M (eds) Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 111-124.
• Dayan, D. (2001). The Peculiar Public Television, Media, Culture Society, 23(6), Sage Publications, London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi, pp. 743-765.
• Detector Media (2017). Kremlin Influence Index, 2017. (Retrieved from http://mdfgeorgia.ge/eng/view_research/5 17.12.2017)
• [DIN, 2018]. Defense and Inteligence Norway: Narrative Strategies, Interview with Dr. Ajit Maan, by Editor-In-Chief Jan H. Kalvik, Defence and Intelligence Norway. March, 17. (http://www.etterretningen.no/2018/03/17/insight-interview-with-dr-ajit-maan-narrative-strategies/ Accessed on 25.05.2018).
• Dzvelishvili, N. and Kupreishvili, T. (2015). Russian Influence on Georgian NGOs and Media. Tbilisi. Available at: www. damoukidebloba.com, with support of IDFI, June
• [EI-LAT, 2016]. European Initiative – Liberal Academy Tbilisi. Threats of Russian Hard and Soft Power in Georgia, Tbilisi. Available at: http://www.ei-lat.ge/images/doc/threats%20of%20russian%20soft%20and%20hard%20power.pdf (Accessed August, 2016)
• Erikson, J. & Noreen, E. (2002). Setting the Agenda of Threats: An Explanatory Model.Uppsala Peace Research Papers, Uppsala University.
• Falkowski, M. (2016). Georgian Drift – The Crisis of Georgians Way Westwards. Centre for Eastern Studies, Working Paper 57, Warsaw.
• Gordadze, T. (2014). Georgia, LSE IDEAS, Reports, June 27. Available at:http://www.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/publications/reports/pdf/SR019/SR019-Gordadze.pdf(Accessed August, 2016)
• Habermas, J., Lennox, S., Lennox, F. (1974) The Public Sphere Encyclopedia Article (1964), by Jurgen Habermas, in New German Critique, N3, (Autumn), pp. 49-55.
• Habermas, J. (1992). Further Reflections on the Public Sphere, in: Calhoun, C. (ed), Habermas and the Public Sphere, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, pp. 421-461.
• ISGP (2007). Inauguration Speeches of the Presidents of Georgia [ISPG] (1991-2004), Institute of Political Science, Publishing House “Akhali Azri,” Tbilisi. (in Georgian Language).
• Jones, S. (1992b). Revolutions in Revolutions Within Revolution: Minorities in the Georgian Republic, in Z.Gitelman (Ed.), The Politics of Nationality and the Erosion of the USSR. (pp. 77-101). London: Macmillan/St. Martin's Press.
• Jones, S. & Kakhishvili, L. (2013). The Interregnum: Georgian Foreign Policy from Independence to the Rose Revolution. In: Kakachia K and Cecire M (eds). Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 13-40.
• Kaarbo, J., Lantism J.S. & Beasley, R. (2013). The Analysis of Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective. In Beasley R, Kaarbo J, Lantis JS and Snarr MT (eds)Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective – Domestic and International Influences on State Behavior. CQpress: Sage Publications, 1-21.
• Kakachia, K. (2013). European, Asian, or Eurasian?: Georgian Identity and the Struggle for Euro-Atlantic Integration. In: Kakachia K and Cecire M (eds) Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 41-52.
• Kakachia, et al. (2018). Introduction, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 6-17
• Karaganov, S. (2014). The Watershed Year: Interim Result – A Chance for a Fundamental Renewal, Russia in Global Affairs, 12(4), pp. 8-19
• Kuzio, T. (2001). Transition in Post-Communist States: Triple or Quadruple?, in Politics, vol. 21 (3), 168-177.
• Lutsevych, O. (2016). Agents of the Russian World - Proxy Groups in the Contested Neighbourhood. Research Paper, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House. April. (Retrieved from https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/2016-04-14-agents-russian-world-lutsevych.pdf 30.06.2018)
• Makarychev, A. (2016). The Limits of Russian Soft Power in Georgia, PONARIS Eurasian Policy Memo No. 412, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University.
• Mikhelidze, N. (2018). EU Global Strategy, Resilience of the East European Societies and the Russian Challenge, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 266-282
• [MSC, 2017]. Munich Security Conference Report: Post-Truth, Post-West, Post-Order? 2017. (Retrieved from http://espas.eu/orbis/sites/default/files/generated/document/en/MunichSecurityReport2017.pdf 15.12.2017)
• Nilsson, N. (2018). Russian Hybrid Tactics in Georgia, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program. http://isdp.eu/content/uploads/2018/01/Russian-Hybrid-Tactics-in-Georgia.pdf (Accessed June, 2018).
• Nodia, G. (2013). Divergent Interests: What Can and Cannot be Achieved in Georgian-Russian Relations. In Kakachia K and Cecire M (eds) Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 81-110.
• Offe, C. Capitalism by Democratic Design? Democratic Theory Facing the Tripie Transition in East Central Europe, in Social Research, vol 71: No. 3: Fall 2004, 501-528.
• Polyakova, A. (2016A), Putinism and the European Far Right, Institute of Modern Russia, 19 January. (Retrieved from http://imrussia.org/en/analysis/world/2500-putinism-and-the-european-far-right 01.03.2016)
• Simao, L. (2018). The Euroepan Union’s New Eastern Partnership Policy, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 18-44
• Snyder, J., & Ballentine, K. (1996). Nationalism and the Marketplace of Idea, in International Security, Vol. 21. N. 2 (Autumn), 5-40.
• Thomas, G. (2016). Western Invasion? Inside Georgia's Battle against the Gay Agenda, CBN News, November 05. Available at: http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2016/may/pumpkinflowers-a-soldiers-unflinching-look-at-modern-war (Accessed December, 2016).
• Walker, C. (2017). A New Era of Competition – The Growing Threat from Authoritarian Internationalism as a Global Challenge to Democracy, in The Fight for Democracy – International Reports, Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung, N2, Vol. 33, Berlin.
• Buzan B. (1998) Security, the State, the "New World Order" and Beyond, Columbia University Press, New York.
• Buzan, B., Waever, O. and Wilde, J. (1998). Security, A New Framework for Analysis, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
• Cobaugh, P. (2018). WHITE PAPER: A Five-Point Strategy to Oppose Russian Narrative Warfare, May 13 (https://www.hstoday.us/white-papers/83285/ Accessed on 15.05.2018)
• Connaway L, Powell R (2010) Basic Research Methods for Librarians, 5th edn; Santa Barbara, California; Denver, Colorado; Oxford, England. Greenwood Publishing Group.
• Cornell, S.E. (2018). The Impact of the Ukraine and and Syria Conflicts on the Geopolitics of the South Caucasus, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 231-265
• Cecire MH (2013) Security and Symbolism: Georgia’s NATO Aspirations in Perspective. In: Kakachia K and Cecire M (eds) Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 111-124.
• Dayan, D. (2001). The Peculiar Public Television, Media, Culture Society, 23(6), Sage Publications, London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi, pp. 743-765.
• Detector Media (2017). Kremlin Influence Index, 2017. (Retrieved from http://mdfgeorgia.ge/eng/view_research/5 17.12.2017)
• [DIN, 2018]. Defense and Inteligence Norway: Narrative Strategies, Interview with Dr. Ajit Maan, by Editor-In-Chief Jan H. Kalvik, Defence and Intelligence Norway. March, 17. (http://www.etterretningen.no/2018/03/17/insight-interview-with-dr-ajit-maan-narrative-strategies/ Accessed on 25.05.2018).
• Dzvelishvili, N. and Kupreishvili, T. (2015). Russian Influence on Georgian NGOs and Media. Tbilisi. Available at: www. damoukidebloba.com, with support of IDFI, June
• [EI-LAT, 2016]. European Initiative – Liberal Academy Tbilisi. Threats of Russian Hard and Soft Power in Georgia, Tbilisi. Available at: http://www.ei-lat.ge/images/doc/threats%20of%20russian%20soft%20and%20hard%20power.pdf (Accessed August, 2016)
• Erikson, J. & Noreen, E. (2002). Setting the Agenda of Threats: An Explanatory Model.Uppsala Peace Research Papers, Uppsala University.
• Falkowski, M. (2016). Georgian Drift – The Crisis of Georgians Way Westwards. Centre for Eastern Studies, Working Paper 57, Warsaw.
• Gordadze, T. (2014). Georgia, LSE IDEAS, Reports, June 27. Available at:http://www.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/publications/reports/pdf/SR019/SR019-Gordadze.pdf(Accessed August, 2016)
• Habermas, J., Lennox, S., Lennox, F. (1974) The Public Sphere Encyclopedia Article (1964), by Jurgen Habermas, in New German Critique, N3, (Autumn), pp. 49-55.
• Habermas, J. (1992). Further Reflections on the Public Sphere, in: Calhoun, C. (ed), Habermas and the Public Sphere, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, pp. 421-461.
• ISGP (2007). Inauguration Speeches of the Presidents of Georgia [ISPG] (1991-2004), Institute of Political Science, Publishing House “Akhali Azri,” Tbilisi. (in Georgian Language).
• Jones, S. (1992b). Revolutions in Revolutions Within Revolution: Minorities in the Georgian Republic, in Z.Gitelman (Ed.), The Politics of Nationality and the Erosion of the USSR. (pp. 77-101). London: Macmillan/St. Martin's Press.
• Jones, S. & Kakhishvili, L. (2013). The Interregnum: Georgian Foreign Policy from Independence to the Rose Revolution. In: Kakachia K and Cecire M (eds). Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 13-40.
• Kaarbo, J., Lantism J.S. & Beasley, R. (2013). The Analysis of Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective. In Beasley R, Kaarbo J, Lantis JS and Snarr MT (eds)Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective – Domestic and International Influences on State Behavior. CQpress: Sage Publications, 1-21.
• Kakachia, K. (2013). European, Asian, or Eurasian?: Georgian Identity and the Struggle for Euro-Atlantic Integration. In: Kakachia K and Cecire M (eds) Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 41-52.
• Kakachia, et al. (2018). Introduction, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 6-17
• Karaganov, S. (2014). The Watershed Year: Interim Result – A Chance for a Fundamental Renewal, Russia in Global Affairs, 12(4), pp. 8-19
• Kuzio, T. (2001). Transition in Post-Communist States: Triple or Quadruple?, in Politics, vol. 21 (3), 168-177.
• Lutsevych, O. (2016). Agents of the Russian World - Proxy Groups in the Contested Neighbourhood. Research Paper, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House. April. (Retrieved from https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/2016-04-14-agents-russian-world-lutsevych.pdf 30.06.2018)
• Makarychev, A. (2016). The Limits of Russian Soft Power in Georgia, PONARIS Eurasian Policy Memo No. 412, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University.
• Mikhelidze, N. (2018). EU Global Strategy, Resilience of the East European Societies and the Russian Challenge, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 266-282
• [MSC, 2017]. Munich Security Conference Report: Post-Truth, Post-West, Post-Order? 2017. (Retrieved from http://espas.eu/orbis/sites/default/files/generated/document/en/MunichSecurityReport2017.pdf 15.12.2017)
• Nilsson, N. (2018). Russian Hybrid Tactics in Georgia, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program. http://isdp.eu/content/uploads/2018/01/Russian-Hybrid-Tactics-in-Georgia.pdf (Accessed June, 2018).
• Nodia, G. (2013). Divergent Interests: What Can and Cannot be Achieved in Georgian-Russian Relations. In Kakachia K and Cecire M (eds) Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 81-110.
• Offe, C. Capitalism by Democratic Design? Democratic Theory Facing the Tripie Transition in East Central Europe, in Social Research, vol 71: No. 3: Fall 2004, 501-528.
• Polyakova, A. (2016A), Putinism and the European Far Right, Institute of Modern Russia, 19 January. (Retrieved from http://imrussia.org/en/analysis/world/2500-putinism-and-the-european-far-right 01.03.2016)
• Simao, L. (2018). The Euroepan Union’s New Eastern Partnership Policy, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 18-44
• Snyder, J., & Ballentine, K. (1996). Nationalism and the Marketplace of Idea, in International Security, Vol. 21. N. 2 (Autumn), 5-40.
• Thomas, G. (2016). Western Invasion? Inside Georgia's Battle against the Gay Agenda, CBN News, November 05. Available at: http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2016/may/pumpkinflowers-a-soldiers-unflinching-look-at-modern-war (Accessed December, 2016).
• Walker, C. (2017). A New Era of Competition – The Growing Threat from Authoritarian Internationalism as a Global Challenge to Democracy, in The Fight for Democracy – International Reports, Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung, N2, Vol. 33, Berlin.
Published
2021-03-21
How to Cite
MATSABERIDZE, David.
The Challenges of Post-Soviet Transformation in Georgia: Democratization and Its External and Domestic Rivals.
Eastern Europe Regional Studies, [S.l.], mar. 2021.
ISSN 2587-456X.
Available at: <https://test.psage.tsu.ge/index.php/Easternstudies/article/view/225>. Date accessed: 25 dec. 2024.
Issue
Section
Articles
- Authors preserve copyright and give the journal right of first publication, that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors can enter into separate, additional arrangements for the distribution of the journal’s published version of the work, with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors can post their work online prior to and during the submission process, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
