Hegemonic Shocks and Georgia’s Democratic Evolution and Backsliding

Abstract

The article, based on Gunitsky's theory of hegemonic shocks, answers the question: why did Georgia take a course towards the formation of hegemonic authoritarianism? Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created a perception among the Georgian political elite of the weakening of the democratic hegemony of the United States and the strengthening of an autocratic Russia, which has led to the emulation of the Russian regime in Georgia. The transition to authoritarianism is not a new phenomenon for Georgia, which periodically transitioned from democratization to an authoritarian cycle of development and then returned back to democratization. But authoritarianism in Georgia was represented by a competing electoral authoritarianism. Therefore, democratic evolution did not cease even during the authoritarian cycle, during which democratic potential grew. The hegemonic course halted Georgia's democratic evolution, but the elite's desire to completely subordinate society to its control is encountering resistance from the increased democratic potential. This is a result of the peculiarity of the political system, which is characterized by the uneven development of state and public components. This is because emulating a democratic system is more difficult than emulating autocratic and totalitarian ones. Democratic emulation requires not only state but also public resources, based on voluntary participation. The lag in the development of the public component reinforced the tendency for society to be subordinated to state control. But in the context of a unipolar world, the democratic hegemon the United States and the European Union, blocked the authoritarian aspirations of pro-Western elites.The transition to a multipolar world has triggered changes in the Georgian elite's foreign and domestic policies. They took an anti-Western course in foreign policy, which weakened the protective function of the United States and the European Union in the democratic evolution of Georgia and determined Georgia's transition to a phase of hegemonic electoral authoritarianism, which cannot be considered complete.