Author

  • Shota Kakabadze is a Junior Policy Analyst at the Georgian Institute of Politics. He is a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science from the University of Tartu (Estonia). Shota has obtained his Masters degree in the European Union โ€“ Russia Studies from the same university. During his doctoral studies he has been a Swedish Institute Research Fellow at Uppsala University Institute of Russia and Eurasian Studies, as well as a Junior Researcher of International Relations at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu. His main research interest includes discourses on national identity, foreign policy, Eastern Partnership. He has published several academic articles and a book chapter on Georgian national identity/foreign policy relationship.

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31/03/2025 Shota Kakabadze

Georgia from Hybrid to Authoritarian Consolidation โ€“ does the public understand the scale of the risk?

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Author

  • Shota Kakabadze is a Junior Policy Analyst at the Georgian Institute of Politics. He is a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science from the University of Tartu (Estonia). Shota has obtained his Masters degree in the European Union โ€“ Russia Studies from the same university. During his doctoral studies he has been a Swedish Institute Research Fellow at Uppsala University Institute of Russia and Eurasian Studies, as well as a Junior Researcher of International Relations at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu. His main research interest includes discourses on national identity, foreign policy, Eastern Partnership. He has published several academic articles and a book chapter on Georgian national identity/foreign policy relationship.

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Publish Date:
2025-03-31 10:54:11
Tags:แƒ—แƒ”แƒ’แƒ”แƒ‘แƒ˜:

Lately, democracies around the world have been facing a significant crisis. According to Freedom House, Global Freedom declined for the 19th year in a row in 2024. Last year, indicators of human rights and civil liberties in 60 countries around the globe worsened, while only 34 countries demonstrated improvement in this regard (Gorokhovskaia & Grothe 2025). Unfortunately, the state of liberal democracy in Georgia closely follows this so-called โ€˜de-democratizationโ€™ wave, marked by the ruling partyโ€™s shift to authoritarianism. Since the 2024 parliamentary elections โ€“ the legitimacy of which remains in question โ€“ โ€œGeorgian Dreamโ€ has proposed a package of legislative amendments that further strengthen the threat of authoritarian consolidation in the country (Caryl 2024; Civil Georgia 2025).

However, while there is an ongoing shift towards authoritarianism by โ€œGeorgian Dreamโ€, there have also been non-stop protests in the country for more than three months. These protests are characterised by self-organization and horizontal mobilization that also mean a shifting focus from opposition parties and leaders. This policy memo aims to briefly give an overview of challenges to democracy in Georgia during the last year, while also examining to what extent perspectives of the political elite, civil society, and the public converge. Furthermore, this text explores the connection between popular support for a European integration-oriented foreign policy and democratization.

Policy Memo #81 | March 2025

The publication has been produced with the financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Georgian Institute of Politics and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia.

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Shota Kakabadze

Shota Kakabadze is a Junior Policy Analyst at the Georgian Institute of Politics. He is a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science from the University of Tartu (Estonia). Shota has obtained his Masters degree in the European Union โ€“ Russia Studies from the same university. During his doctoral studies he has been a Swedish Institute Research Fellow at Uppsala University Institute of Russia and Eurasian Studies, as well as a Junior Researcher of International Relations at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu. His main research interest includes discourses on national identity, foreign policy, Eastern Partnership. He has published several academic articles and a book chapter on Georgian national identity/foreign policy relationship.