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Masaryk University Faculty of Social Studies MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL STUDIES Department of International Relations and European Studies Centralization V.S Democratization and the role of foreign aid. The case of Georgia Master„s Thesis Enri Akhvlediani Supervisor: PhDr. Pavel Pseja. PH.D. UČO: 344849 Study Field: European Politics Year of Enrollment: 2014 Brno 2016 1 I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own independent scholarly work. All references contained within it have been correctly cited and the original authors acknowledged. No material other than that listed has been used. Brno, 2016 Enri Ahvlediani ……………………. 2 Annotation The following paper examines an influence of foreign aid on democratization process of Georgia during 2004-2013. The research question is the following: What are the main factors which stipulated the establishment of one-party system and strong centralization of power in Georgia in the period of Saakashvili (who was considered the successful democratic leader by the West)? According to the hypothesis, “Western democracy promotion“, unconditional support and Georgian ruling party, which tried to expand its political power, caused the strong centralisation of power, and the establishment of the one-party system rather than the democratization of Georgia. In order to check the hypothesis, the paper uses research methods such as case study, process tracing, and analytical discussion. I used the theory of Democratic transition to explain the validity of my hypothesis. Despite the fact that the research mainly focuses on the period of Saakashvili‟s presidency, it also discusses some important characteristics of Shevardnadze‟s period to get the general democratic situation of Georgia. The following survey is an attempt to represent and analyze the materials which show how foreign aid helped Georgian government to centralize all sectors of political life under its power and to establish one party system. Key terms: Democratization, Foreign Aid, Political Elite, Centralisation 3 Table Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Georgia – Interesting Case to research .................................................................................................... 7 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................................................... 8 Research Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 8 Definition of independent and dependent variables .............................................................................. 10 Theory ................................................................................................................................................... 12 Democracy, Democratization and Democratic Transition ................................................................ 12 Foreign Aid and Democratization ..................................................................................................... 15 Centralisation of power and ruling elite ............................................................................................ 19 Competitive Authoritarianism ........................................................................................................... 21 Democratization Indicators ............................................................................................................... 23 Shevardnadze‟s Regime ........................................................................................................................ 24 The Rose Revolution ............................................................................................................................. 25 Western support ..................................................................................................................................... 27 USAID and Georgia .......................................................................................................................... 29 George Soros and his fond – Open Society Georgian Foundation .................................................... 32 Georgian – Russian war and Western Aid ........................................................................................ 34 Unconditional Support .......................................................................................................................... 35 Steps towards Democracy ..................................................................................................................... 37 Centralization of the power and building of dominant party................................................................. 40 Exclusive right of corruption ................................................................................................................. 43 Government and crime .......................................................................................................................... 47 Assassination of Former Prime Minister - Zhvania .......................................................................... 47 Sandro Girgvliani murder case .......................................................................................................... 49 Scandal of Prisoners .......................................................................................................................... 50 Weak civil society ................................................................................................................................. 52 Political Crisis of Georgia and the events of November 2007 .............................................................. 54 Police raid of Imedi –elimination of freedom of speech ....................................................................... 56 New dimension of the problem: people are losing faith ........................................................................ 59 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 62 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 67 4 Introduction After the Rose Revolution (2003) and the presidential and parliamentary elections (2004) in Georgia, power became concentrated in the hands of Mikhail Saakashvili and his young team, who apparently took a course towards the West. The new government launched drastic and painful reforms on the way of democratization and was fully supported by the USA and Europe. According to the president of Georgia, the primary goals of his team were fully democratization of Georgia and membership of the NATO and the EU. Despite the fact that new government could achieve success in some fields, the overall situation became very far from democracy. The interesting factor, which deserves our attention, is that West continued support of Georgia almost until the end of Saakashvili‟s presidency. The research aims to analyze the democratization process of Georgia and its shortcomings during the presidency of Mikhail Saakashvili. Despite the fact that nowadays Georgia is the example of developmental and democratic success, it is clear that the state faces serious problems. If we take into the account the huge amount of aid which was transferred by West to promote democracy in Georgia, it will be very interesting to discover the reality, which tells us that west practically aided the authoritarian regime. The main aim of my research is to answer the question: What are the main factors which stipulated the establishment of one-party system and strong centralization of power in Georgia in the period of Saakashvili (who was considered the successful democratic leader by the West)? I will try to check the relevance of my hypothesis: “Western democracy promotion“, unconditional support and Georgian ruling party, which tried to expand its political power, caused the strong centralisation of power, and the establishment of the one-party system rather than the democratization of Georgia. The independent variables are “Western democracy promotion“, unconditional support and the Georgian ruling party, which tries to expand its power. Dependent variables of the research are strong centralization of power and establishment of the one-party system in Georgia. As we can see from my hypothesis, I will focus on several things to find the reasons of the problems: Western politics towards Georgia, unconditional support and the actions taken by the ruling party. I will try to connect independent variables with each other and show to the 5 readers how they affected on democratization process of Georgia. First of all, I will try to review the aid and the support which was given by the West to Georgia. After that, I will try to describe and analyze the form and character of the relations between Georgia and Western world. The next part will be concentrated on the political elite of Georgia and its domestic and international policy. Finally, I will try to estimate the democratic situation in Georgia during the presidency of Saakashvili. To do that, I will try to analyze several important indicators of democratization: electoral process and political parties, independence of media, civil society, judicial framework, and corruption. By the analyzing of abovementioned indicators
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