ABSTRACT
Georgian political system can be characterized as an unstable electoral democracy with weakly institutionalized parties where political playing field heavily favors the incumbent. Since the country became independent after the dissolution of the USSR the elections have been fairly regular but main features that define the regime persevered – those in power have been dislodged only through extraordinary effort and favorable circumstances, political parties are built and managed from top down, and ordinary members have little power over major decisions made by the leaders. The rich and powerful few – the oligarchs – have always enjoyed an inordinate amount of influence on Georgian politics through direct and indirect participation – by establishing political parties and running them by proxies or themselves while holding in possession major media outlets to ensure that their voice is heard. In the past few years the impact oligarchs have on politics have only increased, not least because of the extraordinary influence the De Facto leader of the incumbent Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili commands over the state affairs. Unfortunately, quite a few opposition parties are not exempt from this vice as well albeit the scope and scale of it is vastly inferior. At this moment, it seems that the only impediment for total capture of political realm by private individuals is public financing of political parties as it can and sometimes does serve as the lifeline for the political organizations that wish to resist or limit the influence of the oligarchs in forming their agendas. In other words, public financing provides some potential for political society to ensure its relative autonomy from other realms. That is only one side of the story, however, state financing may also shield party leadership from the need to democratize internally. Still, at this moment, it is clear that abolishing state subsidies to political organizations will only make things worse for democracy.
