HISTORY: Georgian State Building since the Collapse of the Soviet Union

The Georgian state as we know it now started to take shape in 1991. However, Georgian statehood - as a democratic republic - had a precedent long before the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the USSR, even though the life-span of this republic lasted for only three years: 1918-1921. Within these three years the Democratic Republic of Georgia set up executive and legislative state institutions, adopted a Constitution, and granted women the right to vote. See: Stephen Jones on the anniversary of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

The current Georgian state is 25 years old. It enjoys legitimacy internationally as well as domestically. A nation-wide referendum held in March 1991 supported Georgia's aspiration to withdraw from the Soviet Union with almost absolute majority (98.9% of population). It is worth noting that state- and nation-building processes took place simultaneously in the country which for almost seventy years was denied any opportunity to form a national state. The Georgian government in the early period of independence represented a group of intellectual dissidents who saw the ‘Soviet Empire’ as an enemy to 'Georgian-ness'.

This group of political activists was led by Zviad Gamsakhurdia (who became the first Georgian President in 1991) and Merab Kostava. Most of those politicians developed their political career by fighting against the Soviet regime but they had very little experience in forming a modern state with democratic institutions. Moreover, this government did not help unifying citizens of Georgia around a common project of forming a modern state, but enhanced nationalist sentiment among the population that led to further segregation thereof.

Consequently, the state-building project was not an easy endeavour. The territorial integrity of the state was threatened by ethnic conflicts in Samachablo (South Ossetia) during 1989-1990 and Abkhazia (1992-1993). Moreover, the capacity of the Georgian state as tax collector, as re-distributor of the common wealth in terms of social security programs and as guarantor of the citizens' security was also problematic.

The first democratically elected Georgian government was overthrown as a consequence of a coup d'etat in Tbilisi in January 1992, organized by a paramilitary group called 'Mkhedrioni' (Georgian word for Horseman) and partly by groupings from the National Guard. Later on a well-known politician with Georgian roots, Edward Shevardnadze, was invited by the Military Council to lead the country. During this period Georgian state-building was almost in a stand-still, paramilitary groups were often terrorizing the population and the overall political, social, and economic situation of Georgia was dire. However, slowly the head of the state managed to consolidate his political power and won national-wide legitimacy by being elected as President in 1995 where both parliamentary and presidential elections took place (Dadalauri and Johannsen 2009). This year was also remarkable due to the fact that the Georgian Parliament elaborated and adopted the Constitution of Georgia.

State institutions were already in place when the Constitution was adopted, however, the Constitution furthered the construction of a democratic republic with separate executive (President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers), legislative (Parliament) and judicial (containing Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, district Courts) bodies. The Georgian state comprises eleven administrative territorial units (see map) . However, Georgian jurisdiction is not complied with in the two break-away regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Georgia has been developing as an electoral democracy forming political institutions and has repeatedly held competitive elections. Societal structures such as civil society organization (NGOs), trade unions, and political parties have emerged and increased in number as well as has their effectiveness in terms of influencing state policies. However, civil society organizations still struggle with week relations to constituencies (Jones 2000).

Nonetheless, the Georgian state remains weak in its capacity to ensure compliance by its citizens in terms of paying taxes and in its capacity to administer public finances with high efficiency. Among political scientists it is widely assumed that modern states emerged with the development of bureaucratic structures necessary for collecting and administering taxes. In short, modern states were made by taxes. Following this reasoning, one might say that Georgia emerged as a modern state only as late as in 2004. By then, a second tax code was adopted soon after the new Government took over the reigns of the state following the Rose Revolution in 2003 (Jones 2006). Economic policy that entailed an aggressive privatization process, improvement of tax legislation and collection/administration, and a hard-handed anti-corruption campaign resulted in significant improvements. Thus, in 2004 the revenue collection in Georgia almost doubled and the state budget was for the first time in the recent history of the country non-deficient.

The territorial integrity of the post-Soviet Georgian state has been challenged from the very beginning by the break-away regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The problems facing Georgia in this regard have increased since the august 2008 Russian military intervention in support of the two regions.

Since independence Georgia has conducted six presidential and eight parliamentary elections. The Georgian state is ‘semi-presidential’, with the President being head of state and the Prime Minister, appointed by the President, head of government. Legislative authority is vested in the parliament. Between the Rose Revolution and the 2012 parliamentary elections, Saakashvili’s United National Movement held a majority in the parliament and, hence, in reality held both executive and legislative power. However, the October 2012 elections resulted in a transfer of power in parliament, which is now controlled by the “Georgian Dream” coalition. Giorgi Margvelashvili, also a member of the “Georgian Dream” coalition, was elected President in the presidential elections of October 27 2013. After these elections, a new constitution came into force and significantly reduced presidential powers in favor of the Prime Minister (presently Giorgi Kvirikashvili) and the Government. The latest parliamentary elections were held on 8 October 2016. You can see the results on the webpage of the Georgian Central Election Committee: http://www.cesko.ge/eng

Recommended Reading:

Lincoln A. Mitchell (2009), “Compromising democracy: State building in Saakashvili’s Georgia”. Central Asian Survey, 28:2, pp. 171-183

Jones, Stephen F. (2006). “The Rose Revolution: A Revolution without Revolutionaries?” Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 19: 1, pp. 33-43

Jones, Stephen F. (2000). “Democracy from Below? Interest Groups in Georgian Society”. Slavic Review, 59:1, pp. 42-73.