Georgia is currently experiencing a creeping retreat from democracy, with factors such as geopolitical isolation and dependence on Russia, authoritarian strategies and a curtailment of the separation of powers increasingly shaping the political landscape.
The Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP) compendium 2025, ‘Hope on Hold: Georgia's Battle For Democracy’ documents current authoritarian developments in four articles, analyses causes, and develops recommendations for action to promote democratic resilience.
In their articles, the authors analyse how Georgia's democratic space is shrinking under the guise of ‘stability’, ‘sovereignty’ and ‘legality’. The institutional separation of powers is being weakened, while the judiciary, media and civil society are increasingly restricted by political influence. Furthermore, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has destabilised Georgia's foreign policy position. EU association is stagnating, and domestic political discourse is increasingly moving towards isolationism and nationalist rhetoric. The pro-European orientation of the majority of the population is being pushed back.
Despite the repressive dynamics, hope and resistance remain alive in Georgia. The country's beacons of hope are a resilient civil society, committed individuals and their protests, and continued broad support for Georgia's European orientation.
The GEO4EU project provided financial support for the printing of the compendium. The article ‘Speaking out, staying out: The Paradox of Political Participation in Georgia’ by Shota Kakabadze was written as part of the project.
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