Elections, Legitimacy, Media and Democracy: The Case of Georgia

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Notes

1. This paper is based on data from the 1995 and 2000 election cycles and does not attempt to address changes in the political regime or media climate since that time.

2. The project is headed by Sarah Oates at the University of Glasgow and was funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Special thanks go to Dr. Oates and the Leverhulme Trust for allowing me the opportunity to participate in this project.

3. There are a number of excellent sources on Georgian history and politics including, but not limited to, the press, 1962; Lang, The Georgians; Pipes, Formation of the Soviet Union, 1917–1923; Nasmyth, Georgia; Rosen, Georgia; Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation; Allen, A History of the Georgian People; Allison, Challenges for the Former Soviet South; Aves, Georgia; Cornell, Small Nations and Great Powers; Dawisha and Parrot, Conflict, Cleavage, and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus; Goldstein, The Georgian Feast; Herzig, The New Caucasus; Lang, A Modern History of Soviet Georgia.

4. The BBC website has excellent outlines of these conflicts: South Ossetia at: ⟨http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/3797729.stm⟩ and Abkhazia at: ⟨http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3261059.stm⟩. There are also scholarly works on the conflicts including: Coppieters, Federalism and Conflict in the Caucasus; Dale, “Georgia”; Goldenberg, Pride of Small Nations; Lynch, Russian Peacekeeping Strategies in the CIS; Ozhiganov, “The Republic of Georgia”; MacFarlane et al., Armed Conflict in Georgia.

5. “Russia Hands Over Akhalkalaki Military Base to Georgia,” RIA Novosti, 27 June 2007, ⟨http://en.rian.ru/world/20070627/67940163.html⟩ (accessed 30 June 2007).

6. Popular demonstrations in fall 2007 led to parliamentary elections being moved to May 2008 and an early presidential contest was held in January 2008 (Saakashvili won with 53.4% of the vote).

7. Information on the media comes from: European Institute for the Media, Report on the 1995 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in the Republic; European Institute for the Media, Report on the 2000 Presidential Elections in the Republic of Georgia.

8. European Institute for the Media, Report on the 1995 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in the Republic; European Institute for the Media, Report on the 2000 Presidential Elections in the Republic of Georgia.

9. All data from the European Institute for the Media, Report on the 1995 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in the Republic.

10. Oates, “From the Archives of the European Institute for the Media.”

11. McCormack, Media in the CIS, 10.

12. All data from the European Institute for the Media, Report on the 2000 Presidential Elections in the Republic of Georgia.

13. Numerous conspiracy theories exist to explain Abashidze's candidacy, but they are beyond the scope of this paper. Most of the theories say that Abashidze was using the campaign as a way of solidifying control of Ajara and assuring that Shevardnadze would be beholden to him after the elections and not be able to use a large victory as a way of ousting Abashidze.

14. All data from the European Institute for the Media, Report on the 2000 Presidential Elections in the Republic of Georgia.

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Notes on contributors

Sue Davis

Sue Davis, Department of Political Science, Denison University, Granville, OH 43023, USA. Email: [email protected]