ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Georgia profiles of longstanding democracies and of the European Union, and provides essential detail on history, electoral system, political parties and cleavages, and governments. Georgia was absorbed by Russia in the early nineteenth century. It proclaimed its independence in May 1918, and this was recognized by the Soviets in 1920. Georgia has experienced conflict and ultimately loss of control over two autonomous regions – Abkhazia as of a 1992–1993 war and South Ossetia as of a 2008 war with Russia heavily involved. However, the unfairness of the 2008 parliamentary election, Mikheil Saakashvili’s authoritarian tendencies, and the country’s defeat in the 2008 Russo-Georgian War led to mass protests demanding his resignation in 2009. For the 1999 election, an official anti-Eduard Shevardnadze bloc was created entitled the Union of Democratic Revival. This very heterogeneous bloc grouped nationalists, monarchists, minorities, and leftists, all in a populist opposition led by the autocratic leader in the Adjaria region, Aslan Abashidze.
