Incentivizing Democratic Development

Within the ongoing Euro-Atlantic integration processes, and in a context of increased external and internal pressures on Georgia’s political elite, one central question remains: how and to what extent does integration into Euro-Atlantic structures affect the quality of Georgian democracy?  This project addresses this question by analyzing the positions of diverse actors inside and outside the country.  

Firstly, we explore how democratization discourse is framed by important local actors, including all Georgian governmental institutions and political parties, but also other influential players who are indirectly involved in political processes such as Georgian Orthodox Church, civil society actors, epistemic communities, and public and social movements. Furthermore, we look at the influence of external actors on domestic political decisions, analyzing opportunities or constraints they create.  

Project objectives: 

• Bridging communication gap between international and national experts, civil society, political elite, citizens and media. 
• Analyzing how domestic actors in Georgia perceive the link between the democratization and Europeanization. 
• Assessing possible correlation between national and European agendas. 

Activities:  

• Hosting the International Conference on Democratization in Georgia, based on a series of policy briefs and panels discussions.
• Engaging local stakeholders from Georgia’s regions in political debates about the country’s strategic development, through democracy workshops and focus groups on public opinions, hold at regional universities. 
• Conducting surveys of experts on specific topics. 
• Building a Regional Integration Index to go beyond the bilateral perspective of EU-EaP relations and assessing Georgia’s integration with each key external regional actors.