The Global State of Democracy

Georgia exhibits mid-range performance across all Global State of Democracy (GSoD) categories of democracy. It ranks in the top 25 per cent globally in Absence of Corruption, and over the past five years, it has experienced significant declines in six factors, including Credible Elections, Civil Society, and Civil Liberties Some of these concerns are due to heavy-handed repression of anti-government protesters and civil society as well as  hostile environment for media. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Georgia endured years of political instability and a severe economic collapse, but is now an upper-middle-income country and mid-performing democracy. Historically, much of Georgian public policy was oriented towards obtaining membership in NATO and the European Union, but in recent years the ruling Georgian Dream has backtracked on both goals. Economically, Georgia is dependent on remittances from the 23 per cent of the labor force that works outside the country.  

Georgia is overwhelmingly composed of ethnic Georgians (86 per cent or the population), but has sizable Azerbaijani, Armenian, Abkhaz, Ossetian and other smaller minorities. Ethnic minorities’ grievances in the early years of independence strengthened separatist Abkhaz and Ossetian movements, leading to the Georgian Civil War (1991-1993). Russia intervened on behalf of Abkhaz and Ossetian separatists, and the war ended after the displacement of roughly 300,000 people — primarily ethnic Georgians — from the self-declared and largely unrecognized Republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Then in 2008, Russia baited an incautious Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili into providing an excuse to launch a full-scale war, which resulted in Russia establishing de facto control over both separatist republics and displacing an additional 135,000 Georgians and Ossetians. As of 2024, about 299,000 Georgians (eight per cent of the population), are registered as internally displaced people, and hold an uncertain place in Georgian society.  

Georgian politics have been dominated by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has controlled the parliament and nearly every municipal government  continuously since defeating Saakashvili’s United National Movement in 2012. Since then, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is the head of the UNM and Georgia’s richest man, has been Georgia’s de facto ruler, despite having only intermittently held office. Although the parties have historically largely agreed ideologically, identity-based polarization has become intense in recent years, and Georgian Dream’s formal ‘pause’ of European Union accession in 2024 was met with widespread protests. Simultaneously, the government has moved to severely restricted media, opposition political party and civil society freedom through direct prosecutions and by cutting off sources of nongovernmental funding. 

Georgia performs in the mid-range on Gender Equality and elected its first woman president in 2018. However, women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights have suffered under Georgian Dream’s restrictions of rights and liberties; parliament repealed a 2020 gender quota in 2024 and LGBTQIA+ people are officially portrayed as an unwanted Western import. 

Having abandoned the broadly popular goal of EU membership, Georgia’s trajectory in the next five years will be determined by how far Georgian Dream takes its authoritarian turn and reorientation towards Russia. Moves to single out critical journalists for prosecution and shutter media outlets entirely means it Freedom of Expression and the Media may be at risk, and efforts to politicize the civil service may indicate further declines in Predictable Enforcement.  

Updated: May 2025