The Politics of Culture and Identity in Postcommunist States: A New Political Cleavage in Georgia?

Abstract

The role of ideology in political competition in the former Soviet Union is under-researched. This essay uses public opinion data to identify and investigate patterns of political competition in Georgia. I find voters’ preferences on a range of issues to be underpinned by a latent cultural dimension of political ideology that concerns how citizens view the relationship between the Georgian nation and the rest of the world. I go on to present evidence that this dimension is, at least to some extent, both embedded in social structure and reflected in voting patterns.

Notes

1 ‘Georgian Orthodox to Leave WCC and CEC’, Orthodox Christian Information Centre, available at: http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/georgia_wcc.aspx, accessed 10 December 2018.

2 ‘Georgia Declares State of Emergency’, Reuters, 7 November 2007, available at: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-georgia/georgia-declares-state-of-emergency-idUKL0752768220071107, accessed 20 December 2018.

3 ‘Violence Prevails in Aftermath of Thwarted Gay Rights Rally’, Civil.ge, 17 March 2013, available at: http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=26066.

4 ‘Orthodox Parents’ Union, Clergy Accuse Football Federation in LGBT Propaganda’, Georgia Today, 7 November 2017, available at: http://georgiatoday.ge/news/8097/Orthodox-Parents’-Union%2C-Clergy-Accuse-Football-Federation-in-LGBT-Propaganda, accessed 21 December 2018.

5 ‘GD Refloats Proposal on Setting Constitutional Bar to Same-Sex Marriage’, Civil Georgia, 8 March 2016, available at: https://civil.ge/archives/125345, accessed 16 January 2019.

6 The Constitution of Georgia, available at: https://matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/30346?publication=35, accessed 16 January 2019.

7 ‘Georgia's Backlash against Foreign Landowners’, Al Jazeera, 14 August 2013, available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/08/2013811125720720256.html, accessed 21 December 2018.

8 See also, ‘Far Right Georgian March Holds Rally in Batumi’, Georgia Today, 13 August 2018, available at: http://georgiatoday.ge/news/11801/Far-Right-Georgian-March-Holds-Rally-in-Batumi, accessed 21 December 2018.

9 ‘Ultranationalists March Against Immigration, Counter-Protesters Rally Against Occupation’, Civil Georgia, 15 July 2017, available at: https://civil.ge/archives/217865, accessed 21 December 2018.

10 ‘Ultranationalists Rally Against Soros Foundation, Land Ownership Changes’, Civil Georgia, 13 September 2017, available at: https://civil.ge/archives/218294, accessed 20 December 2018.

11 ‘Ultranationalist Georgian March Holds Anti-Soros Protest Rally’, Georgia Today, 23 February 2018, available at: http://georgiatoday.ge/news/9232/Ultranationalist-Georgian-March-Holds-Anti-Soros-Protest-Rally, accessed 21 December 2018.

12 Most notable among these is the ultra-conservative millionaire businessman Levan Vasadze, who organised the 2016 World Congress of Families in Tbilisi and claims that liberalism is ‘an immoral diabolical cult’. See Pushaw (2019).

13 In June 2018, 84% of Georgians polled said that they approve of the activities of the Georgian Orthodox Church. However, this figure was down from the 94% approval rating registered in 2013. See, ‘84% of Georgians Approve of Activities of Georgian Orthodox Church’, website of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 8 June 2018, available at: http://www.spc.rs/eng/84_georgians_approve_activities_georgian_orthodox_church, accessed 21 December 2018.

14 In an opinion poll carried out for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) by the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC) Georgia in June 2018, 44% of respondents expressed the view that protecting the rights of sexual minorities was ‘not important’, compared with only 23% who held that it was ‘important’. In an earlier poll carried out in April 2015 by the same organisation, the figures were 49% and 21% respectively. See, ‘Public Attitudes in Georgia: Results of June 2018 Survey Carried Out for NDI by CRRC Georgia’, available at: https://www.ndi.org/sites/default/files/NDI_June_2018_Presentation_Public_ENG_vf.pdf, accessed 5 January 2019.

15 Identoba's website (in Georgian) is available at: http://identoba.ge, accessed 5 January 2019.

16 See, for example, ‘Rat’om gadaipikra adamianis uplebata datsvis k’omit’et’ma 17 maisis aghnishvna: lgbt’ akt’ivist’i tamaz sozashvili st’umrad imedis dilashi’, Imedi TV, 2 May 2018, available at: https://www.imedi.ge/ge/video/23792/ratom-gadaipiqra-adamianis-uplebata-datsvis-komitetma-17-maisis-agnishvna--lgbt-temis-protesti-da-motkhovna, accessed 5 January 2019.

17 ‘Hungarian PM Met with Protests During Tbilisi Visit’, Tabula, 21 April 2017, available at: http://www.tabula.ge/en/story/119514-hungarian-pm-met-with-protests-during-tbilisi-visit, accessed 5 January 2019.

18 girchi in Georgia means ‘pine cone’ and is seen as a symbol of freshness, greenery and enlightenment.

19 ‘Georgian Court Abolishes Fines for Marijuana Consumption’, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 30 July 2018, available at: https://www.rferl.org/a/georgian-constitutional-court-abolishes-fines-for-marijuana-consumption/29399496.html, accessed 5 January 2019.

20 ‘Govt Mulls Medical Cannabis Cultivation for Export’, Civil Georgia, 11 September 2018, available at: https://civil.ge/archives/253652, accessed 5 January 2019; ‘Government to Withdraw Cannabis Cultivation Bill’, Civil Georgia, 2 November 2018, available at: https://civil.ge/archives/263225, accessed 5 January 2019.

21 ‘Tbilisi Rally Continues After Police Dismantle Protest Camp’, Civil Georgia, 13 May 2018, available at: https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia-tbilisi-rally-after-police-dismantle-protest-camp/29224058.html, accessed 5 January 2019.

22 ‘Why has the Georgian Patriarchate not Supported the Idea of an Independent Ukrainian Church?’, Jam News, 10 October 2018, available at: https://jam-news.net/why-has-the-georgian-patriarchate-not-supported-the-idea-of-an-independent-ukrainian-church/, accessed 5 January 2019.

23 According to the above-cited opinion poll for NDI by CRRC Georgia, in December 2018 83% of survey respondents supported Georgia joining the EU, while 78% supported NATO membership. See, ‘Public Attitudes in Georgia: Results of December 2018 Survey’, available at: www.ndi.org/sites/default/files/NDI%20Georgia_Issues%20Poll%20Presentation_December%202018_English_Final.pdf, accessed 4 March 2019.

24 For cleaning I remove: all cases in which the time taken to complete the 30 issue statements of the VAA was less than 120 seconds; all cases in which the time to respond to any one issue statement was one second or less; all cases in which the time taken to respond to three or more issues statements was two seconds or less; all cases in which the respondent answered ten successive issue statements in the same way; all cases in which there are 20 or more ‘no opinion’ responses to issue statements; all cases for which it is not the first time the user has accessed the VAA on a particular machine (as indicated by a cookie). Finally, I remove all those who declared themselves ineligible to vote, and all those that claimed an age of 95 or more (on the grounds that they were probably fictitious entries).

25 In Georgia, 77 seats out of 150 are elected by a nationwide party list with a 5% minimum threshold. The remaining 73 seats are elected in single-mandate constituencies.

26 Data obtained from two sources that draw from the 2014 General Population Census Data: Hakkert (2017), and Geostat statistics database, available at: http://pc-axis.geostat.ge/PXWeb/pxweb/en/Database/Database__Population%20Census%202014__Education/12_Population%2010%20years%20of%20age%20and%20over%20by%20regions%20and%20educational%20attaiment.px/table/tableViewLayout2/?rxid=763bf70b-f795-4497-966c-d40d984dafcf, accessed 15 January 2019.

27 For comparison, see Wheatley (2015, 2019).

28 See the party's website, available at: https://girchi.ge/english-welcome, accessed 16 January 2019.

29 ‘Georgian Opposition Party Will Not Face Charges for Planting Pot’, Democracy and Freedom Watch, 25 February 2017, available at: https://dfwatch.net/georgian-opposition-party-will-not-face-charges-for-planting-pot-47726, accessed 16 January 2019.

30 ‘Republican Party to Lobby Civil Partnership for Same Sex Couples’, Civil Georgia, 21 September 2017, available at: https://civil.ge/archives/218316, accessed 16 January 2019.

31 See the party's website, available at: http://europeangeorgia.ge/campaigns/2018-clis-saprezidento-archevnebia, accessed 16 January 2019.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jonathan Wheatley

Jonathan Wheatley, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK. Email: [email protected]