Democracy - articles

Kultur – Demokratie – Europa - Heinrich Boell Foundation South Caucasus Watch on YouTube

This article discusses the recent key developments that have led to a deteriorating quality of democracy and institutions in the country.

Recent protests at Tbilisi State University demonstrated the precarious conditions of students, particularly those from the regions, on the capital’s housing market. Hence, the Georgian government should put students on the agenda of social housing policies and recognize students as vulnerable group eligible for state housing support. 

The war, the repressed civil society, the retaliatory sanctions applied by the Western countries, the fear of general military mobilization were all factors that forced several hundred thousand Russians into migration. Why did some of the relocates choose Armenia as a destination and how can this migration affect the democratization processes in the country? Read in Russian

This article discusses several key policy features relating to ethnic and religious minorities thirty years after Georgia’s independence.

Germany leads as a destination country for migrants from Azerbaijan ahead of other European states. It is hard to provide an accurate number but according to various expert estimates, Germany is home to approximately 20 to 30 thousand Azerbaijani migrants. 

The recent Namakhvani Hydro Power Plant protests, which started with ecological concerns turned into a path breaking critique of the Georgian state, opposing all the foundations on which the imaginary of development stands: commodification of nature, exploitation of workers, neglecting the public voice, prioritization of private capital interests above the public welfare, and violent methods

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the four formal and informal governments of post-Soviet Georgia, which were led by Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Eduard Shevardnadze, Mikheil Saakashvili, and Bidzina Ivanishvili, through the prism of vertical social contracts. 

The Georgian judiciary has been in the process of ongoing reform since Georgia gained its independence. However, to this day, we have not created judicial institutions that will resist internal and external influences. We could not make a system free from internal corporate, financial, or party interests.

Discussions around the most popular topics in Georgia are often submerged in doubts and mistrust. Many social groups feel that everything is not what it seems at first glance, the explanation of events is often misleading, and there are alternative understandings of what is going on that are rarely revealed and are kept secret.