POLITICS

Giya ZHORZHOLIANI

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Giya Zhorzholiani, Ph.D. (Hist.), associated professor at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (Tbilisi, Georgia)

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Georgia is living through the third stage of its post-Soviet political history. Its first democratically elected president personified the very idea of national independence and devoted the country’s entire policy to it. However, President Gamsakhurdia’s authoritarian bias aimed at centralizing and monopolizing power produced unexpected results. Groups within the ruling elite became locked in a power struggle and society split, while the opposition grew more and more radical. This and certain external factors led to the tragic events of late 1991-early 1992 when the president was deposed in an undemocratic way.

Eduard Shevardnadze, who came to power as the country’s second president, announced that democracy would be the beginning and end of his domestic policies. The chosen means and methods, however, did not correspond to the aim. The system he was busy creating kept society (the nation) away from politics and from building up democratic institutions: everything was done by a narrow circle of politicians who played by their own quasi-democratic rules. Sham democracy undermined the state institutions and worsened the people’s social, economic, and legal situation. While gradually losing support at home, the regime fell victim to the democratic rules it had created itself. Several members of the ruling Union of Georgian Citizens Party, which was headed by Mikhail Saakashvili and moved onto the side of the opposition during Shevardnadze’s last presidential term, appealed to the nation pushed into the background by the………………………..

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