ADDING INSULT TO INJURY: EMOTION, FRAMING, AND COGNITIVE LIBERATION IN GEORGIA'S ROSE REVOLUTION By Kelli Hash-Gonzalez Submitted to the Faculty of the School of International Service of American University in Partial Fulfillment of l D \ , . l . I . (..Y \"-A Q \. ~ f', f'\Ct\ 0 /) the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In ath /I . ~ , l,·t~I -~~L.·· .·· . /(... , ... ~··-/, Dr. Charles H. Fairbanks, Jr. ~ ··· ~~x CJW--1~ /Dr:-Miguel Carter J b w OtJDh_ Dean of the School /<; 0fsT Date 2008 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY UBFV\RY C\ 2>\?\ UMI Number: 3340557 Copyright 2008 by Hash-Gonzalez, Kelli All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3340557 Copyright 2009 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway PO Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 481 06-1346 ©COPYRIGHT by Kelli Hash-Gonzalez 2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This is dedicated to Kate Lomtatidze, Vera Gogokhia, and all hopeful people. ADDING INSULT TO INJURY: EMOTION, FRAMING, AND COGNITIVE LIBERATION IN GEORGIA'S ROSE REVOLUTION BY Kelli Hash-Gonzalez ABSTRACT This dissertation looks at popular mobilization during Georgia's Rose Revolution (November 2003). It asks why a relatively large number of people joined the movements and protests, despite the apathy and resignation that pervaded the political culture. An inductive, comparative analysis examines the responses of protestors and non-protestors, in an effort to understand what made the difference in their behavior: Why did some people become active, while others remained at home? Why did this instance of election fraud provoke such a reaction, in contrast to previous instances? While other factors were also necessary, I argue that we can only understand the popular mobilization if we look at the role emotion played in moving people to protest. In order for a sufficient number of people to join the protest movement, the old mindset of resignation and passiveness had to change. Some Georgians experienced such a change in consciousness, as they made the transition from frustrated resignation to outraged and empowered defiance. A sufficient number of people began to believe that they might have the power to cause change. I argue that this transformation, sometimes known as cognitive liberation, was possible because of emotion. This is because emotions and beliefs are intimately 11 connected and therefore able to influence each other. They work together, in turn, to influence human behavior. In the Georgian case, one means by which emotions and beliefs impacted protest behavior was the collective action frames. In their framing work, activists appealed to people's emotions, as well as to their beliefs and values. Thanks to this framing work and its emotional component, activists were able to amplify beliefs that supported participation and transform beliefs that did not. They were able to overcome the resignation and apathy and mobilize a critical mass of people. 111 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the Fulbright Organization and Institute for International Education for supporting the language study that made this research possible. Charles Fairbanks and the American-Georgian Initiative for Liberal Education provided financial support that allowed me to conduct the field work. I am grateful to all of the people who shared their stories and their homes with me in Georgia, and to my committee and other scholars for their input and encouragement: Cathy Schneider, Charles Fairbanks, Miguel Carter, Louise Shelley, Jerrold Post, James Jasper, and Louis Goodman. Finally, I thank my husband Ed for his enduring patience and generosity. My 'paper' is finally done. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .......................................................................................... .ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................vi LIST OF ACRONYMS .............................................................................. vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... l 2. THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO MOBILIZATION .......................... 6 3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE DEMAND: GEORGIA UP TO 2001. ............. .40 4. CREATION OF THE SUPPLY ...................................................... 76 5. MOBILIZATION: THE ROSE REVOLUTION ................................. 102 6. FINDINGS ............................................................................. 141 7. DISCUSSION ........................................................................ .155 8. EPILOGUE ............................................................................ 187 APPENDIX ......................................................................................... 199 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................. 200 v LIST OF TABLES PRELIMINARY ELECTION RESULTS ...................................................... 105 vi ACRONYMS ALPE Legal Education Association CEC Central Election Commission CUG Citizens' Union of Georgia GFSIS Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies GYLA Georgian Young Lawyers' Association IS FED International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe OSGF Open Society Georgia Foundation PVT Parallel Vote Tabulation RR Rose Revolution TSU Tbilisi State University vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION We finally saw a revolution with our own eyes. We had been taught that the 1917 revolution was the greatest thing, and then we saw one with our own eyes. There aren't many revolutionaries in history-Lenin, Castro, but not Chavez. Saakashvili is now one of their number. Revolution is an operation without anesthesia, and you observe while they cut you open. But the living body was already dying, and the operation had to be done. We saw it all on tv, without anesthetic. We all watched the operation. Where else will you ever see such a thing? It's a very interesting thing to watch and go through, an historic event. And we were afraid. Who isn't afraid of an operation? Even the doctor's hands shake. When I watched it, my hair stood on end. We knew something big was happening, and didn't know how it would end. 1 This 'operation' was the 2003 Rose Revolution, performed on the critically ill Republic of Georgia.2 The country was dying--ofpoor governance and total corruption. Years of ineffective, corrupt leadership had reduced the country, once a relatively prosperous Soviet republic, to poverty. By 2000, Georgia had received more than a billion dollars in US aid,3 and a common perception was that elites were siphoning off funds for their own use. People saw the extravagant homes and expensive suits and watches that government employees could not have afforded on their official salaries. At the same time, people could see the country's infrastructure crumbling before their eyes. 1 Confidential interview with non-protestor, by author, October 10, 2006, Tbilisi, Georgia, digital recording, (22). 2 There is a lack of agreement on whether this event was indeed a revolution in the classical sense. I bracket this question in my work and refer to it as a revolution, because that is how it has come to be known. 3 "Country Report: Georgia," Economist Intelligence Unit (November 2003), 24, http://www.eiu.com (accessed May 21, 2006). 1 2 The country was also falling apart in a literal sense, as Shevardnadze had proved unable to restore Georgia's territorial integrity. Two breakaway regions had remained de facto independent for ten years by the time of the Rose Revolution (hereafter referred to as the RR). The parliamentary elections of November 2003 proved to be the last straw. After President Shevardnadze and his allies tried to steal the election, thousands of Georgians protested in cold, rainy weather for weeks, sometimes overnight. The size of the crowd fluctuated, from a few hundred up to about 100,000.4 First, the people demanded the true election results, and later-the president's resignation. Shevardnadze resigned after three weeks of protest, and even more impressive is the fact that there was so little violence involved. In hindsight, people's reaction is not surprising, but it could not have been taken for granted at the time that so many would rise up in protest. 5 Georgians had good reasons not to participate in the protest movement. The poverty that angered people also exhausted them. Some who might otherwise have been politically active were too busy trying to support families. Also, cynicism and distrust of political authority are part of Georgia's Soviet legacy. Politics is popularly considered a truly 'dirty' business, activist Giorgi Kandelaki writes: "Georgia was a typical post-Soviet society, where the popular attitude towards any kind of political participation