(TV) Media Causing Division: The Case of Georgia

          This paper focuses on the electoral polarization in post-Soviet democracies, in which mass media are assigned to have great impact on political campaigns.   The preparation for the elections during the election campaign was topical in every era. In the 19th century, new methods for conducting election campaigns developed in the United States. The Americanization of election campaign is distinguished with the characteristics such as special role of media in the pre-election period, political personalization, brittle ideological grounds and particular specialization of political campaign. The process of exerting influence by mass media on election campaign, which is described as political mediatization, takes the center stage of this paper. Mediatization in this context means the implementation of mass media logic within election campaigns. The election campaigns were in need of media professionals hired to navigate the campaign’s strategy. With the emergence of campaign advisors, emerged the term ,,Mediatization.” For the beginning of 1990s in Georgia, after 70 years of soviet governance, the first steps on the way of statehood had been made. In the post-Soviet Georgia, multiparty and competitive elections gave opportunity to the political parties to use foreign experience in the term of political campaign. The aim of the work is to examine the tendencies of Mediatization of election campaign in Georgia from 2012 to 2021. In accordance with the research hypothesis, weak institutionalization of party system creates a favorable ground for a Mediatization of political campaign.  In the research process characteristics of political mediatization existing in post-Soviet Georgia had been analyzed.           Qualitative research methods have been utilized during the study, namely: a) Expert interviews with journalists and political consultants; b) In-depth interviews with representatives of political parties; c) In-depth interviews with selected electorate. Qualitative research methods were chosen for the work because the aim is to understand the tendencies of Mediatization of election campaign in Georgia from the point of view of respondents. Qualitative methods are more open and look more descriptions, by gathering responses like these it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the subject.

ELECTORAL VOLATILITY IN GEORGIA: QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE STABILITY OF PARTY SYSTEM

Stable party system is the basic of consolidated democracy. Despite the fact that many researchers are interested in studying of system stability and institutionalism, the empirical studies about the mentioned issue are rather scarce. Electoral volatility is used as one of the measurements of the party system. Pedersen Index is one of the famous instruments in researches of electoral volatility. The mentions instrument is used into two directions: for measure party stability and the volatile electorate. The length of democratic transaction and party system fragmentation determines the electoral volatility. In accordance with the electoral volatility the post-soviet and former socialist countries are significantly ahead of the other regions. A little experience of multiparty political system and weak party identification is named as the cause of the mentioned. In this article my purpose was to study regional contest of electoral volatility in post-soviet and post-socialist countries, to analyze the condition in Georgia in this regard and to make conclusions only follow the contextual analysis. In the study I used qualitative methods, monographic study (Case Study) and I divided Georgian party system as the case. The study showed that in Georgia as well as in the many countries of the region the share of parties’ instability in the overall volatility rate is much higher than the share of volatility caused by the volatile electorate. There are the weak state institutions in Georgia for decades, semi-authoritarian regime and difficult social-economical conditions prevents the formation of a stable party syste

Political Consulting in Georgia (qualitative analysis of twenty years experience of multiparty election campaign)

                   The originals of political consulting had been formed event Before Christmas. The preparation for the elections during the election campaign was topical in every era. There always was Advisor Consultant side to side of politician. For the beginning of 1990s in Georgia, after 70 years Soviet governance had been made the first steps on the way of statehood. In the post-Soviet Georgia multiparty, competitive elections gave opportunity political parties to use Western countries experience in the term of political campaign. Transformation of the election campaign model began in a very hard condition, country development perspective, emerged after the independence was outweighed by military operations. In the second half of 1990s there was more stable condition in Georgia; however the fragmentation of the parties and weak institutionalization of party systems was unsolvable problem. The answer on the question – why happened intensive Americanization of political campaign during the “Rose Revolution” is clear: in the conditions where the role of mass media was increasing, the compensation of fragile ideological basis of political parties and weak representation of voters' interests should be carried out through the personalization of politics. In Georgia, like other new democracies the Americanization process of election campaign had been actively implemented. It is noteworthy that personalization of politics and fragile ideological and structural basis of Georgian party system were the main characteristics of the first years of independence. However strengthen of mass media and media technologies played turning role in the term of political campaign transformation. At the initial stage in the Post-Soviet Georgia the task of parties was mobilization of wide mass for demonstration. The comprehensive policy is explicit sign of the election campaign. In the Georgia mediatization of politics had been carried out gradually and reached to the peak during the “Rose Revolution.” In the initial stage of the professionalization of election campaign, the parties apply specialists (consultants) for help only in exceptional cases. 

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Leader Versus Party: Georgian Experience

This paper focuses on the transformation of party system institutionalization in post-Soviet Georgia.  Political parties are weakly institutionalized and personalized and the level of popular trust towards political parties is low in Georgia. The personalization of political parties, always inspired by their leardrs’ personalities. The first of such parties, the round table – free Georgia was built around the personality of Zviad gamsakhurdia. The leader’s party was Citizen’s Union of Georgia, built around Eduard Shevardnadze. Also, the adjarian regional leader Aslan Abashidze built Georgian Revival Union. The same is true of United National Movement built around Mikheil Saakashvili and Georgian Dream founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili.  As a result of analysis had been revealed that Georgian party system suffers crisis in the term of institutionalization. On the one hand the weakness of program / ideological connection between parties and electorate and articulation-aggregation of public interests remains as an unsolved problem in party system. The political parties do not have a sense of stability and are focused on short-term success. On the other hand the personalization of politics and special dependence on the leader even more escalates crisis in the party system institutionalization. The absence of ideological watershed between the political parties contributes to the instability of electorate.  The voter often can’t see fundamental difference between the parties

The Personalization of Politics in Media Context: Discourse Analysis of Political Talk-Show

Whitin the last decades political communication has suffered transformation in the world’s ongoing globalization conditions. Political personalization is the main characteristic of political communication not only in transitional democracies, but in developed democracies too. There are three types of political personalization in academic literature: Media personalization, institutional personalization and electoral personalization.The present article aims to examine political personalization in media context in Georgia. In accordance with the research hypothesis weak institutionalization of party system promotes media personalization. It should be determined by the results of study, whether there is media personalization? What characteristics is detected? How it is connected to the party system institutionalization? The Survey results suggest, big part of time in media coverage is devoted to the problem consideration. Nevertheless, there is political personalization in Georgia and it has negative character.             In the research are used qualitative methods: The Analysis of personal coverage (Issue / Process); Distribution of the  personalization evidence by types; The resaerch of the character and quality of personalization. In-depth interviews with representatives of political parties and selected electorate

Tbilisi Mayorial Elections (Comparative Analysis of Successful Candidates in 2010, 2014 and 2017 Years)

In the present work, we are reviewing Tbilisi mayoral elections in 2010, 2014 and 2017 years. The modern democratic states recognize and adopt the self-government forms. Georgia has made the first steps toward self-government for the beginning of the last century, Georgia has made the first steps toward self-government for the beginning of the last century, however, due to the historical and political situation we couldn't get essential results and experience in this respect. The self-government activities in the country began only from the second part of the 1990s, and step by step along with the carried out reforms has been formed the present self-government form. In the 2014 year has been obtained "The Organic Law of Georgia, Local Self-Government Code."It is interesting, from this perspective, how will we evaluate Tbilisi mayoral elections. We have chosen Tbilisi as an object of our study because it is capital of Georgia and tightly populated city. Our goal was:-   To determine which election strategies (technologies) were used;-   To highlight the decisive factors;-   To determine the role of specific environment;-   To evaluate gained experience;Our theoretical frame is based on the theories of Political Marketing and Marketing Parties, according to which we have analyzed the mentioned election campaigns. In the post-Soviet space political landscape and approach of political parties to political technologies differs from the West one. We tried to analyze Tbilisi mayoral elections in the context of political marketing, to allocate its basic characteristics and find an explanation for them

Modification of Political Personification during the Presidential Election Campaign in Georgia

The policy has become especially personified in recent decades. The weakness of parties as a representative of public interests is named as a major reason of personalization of politics, however in other opinion, the growing influence of the media and the political elite as well as strengthen of related persons promotes personalization of politics. The post-Soviet countries, including Georgia are characterized by the personification of politics and especially election campaign. The interest in study issue selected by me is caused by the fact that the personalization of politics is especially remarkable during the presidential election and the nature of the elections itself. The electorate chooses a particular person, which significantly determines the personalization of the elections. In such a time the voter makes choice by focusing on the person, the consultants construct communication strategy based on the person and the media presents the policy at the level of individual confrontation and not in the context of program-ideological competition. In the presented article are discusses the election campaigns of five presidents in terms of personification. As a result, the main characteristics and personification types were identified in the conditions of eight election campaigns. The mentioned material creates grounds for in-depth analyzes and reasonable conclusions

The Spectacular Nature of the Election Campaign in Georgia Abstract

the last quarter of the 20th century the world party system and its political campaign have suffered important changes and the process Americanization began. The majority of the Western European parties are based on the solid ideological basis and representation of the interests of electorate. In the new democracies political parties are characterized with weak organization and special personalization. Moreover, in these countries the fragile ideological grounds of political parties conditioned spectacular character of election campaign. Researchers term such modification of election campaign “Carnivalization”.The present paper aims to determine how political personification determines spectacular character of the electoral campaign. In the 1990s the weak representation of the Georgian political parties has plaid determining role in terms of transformation of political campaign. Therefore, after the Rose Revolution of 2003 the “Carnivalization” process of election campaign became active. The study is based on the following qualitative research methods: a). Expert interviews with political consultants; b). In-depth interviews with representatives of political parties; g). In-depth interviews with the selected electorate