Author
14-02-2024
The Georgia Governance Index (GGI) evaluates Georgia’s governance in four principal domains: democracy and human rights (democratic governance), the efficiency of state institutions (effective governance), socio-economic policies (socio-economic governance), and foreign and security policy (external governance). While primarily concentrating on Georgian state institutions, the GGI also examines the roles of other entities, such as political parties and civil society organizations.
Despite the availability of numerous global and regional indices that feature Georgia, a detailed, country-specific annual review of Georgia’s governance performance remains absent. To date, no country-specific organization has undertaken such an analysis. The GGI not only complements international indices with its methodology and empirical data but also offers a distinctive perspective from within the country, alongside innovative methodological approaches. The index aims to inform the Georgian public and various stakeholders about the country’s democratic and economic developments, responding to the growing demand for an all-encompassing report on these issues.
Methodologically, the GGI integrates both qualitative and quantitative research methods and epistemologies. Its scoring system derives from the GGI Expert Survey, conducted with 47 experts from various fields in Georgia, and is enhanced by qualitative research performed by the GIP team.
The current report is the third iteration of the GGI. In terms of results, similar to the previous reports, the 2023 report depicts a less than rosy picture. Georgia’s performance was suboptimal in all four areas of governance. The country’s record was uneven in the areas of effective governance and also declined further in external governance. Somewhat unexpectedly, the sector of democratic governance witnessed the most substantial improvement. This, however, can be attributed primarily to the democratic resilience exhibited by civil society, the increasing independence of the presidential office, and, to a lesser extent, noteworthy progress in the democratic functioning of key state institutions.
