Political Leaders and Elites in Transition Georgia

This study uses comparative analysis to examine the political activities of elites and personal qualities of Georgia’s transitional leaders - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Eduard Shevardnadze, Mikheil Saakashvili and Bidzina Ivanishvili - as well as the role and place of charismatic leaders in Georgian politics. Equally, elements of patriarchal, subservient culture in Georgian reality are examined. As it can be seen from this study, in the political thinking and culture of Georgia the orientations of the subordinate culture are redundant (they are predetermined by the totalitarian past, authoritarian and autocratic rule of M. Saakashvili, widespread thief mentality, 'contrasting character of Georgians' and other factors). There is great faith in a charismatic leader, undeveloped culture of state thinking, weak pluralist and party democracy. Democratic 'political rules of the game' are in the process of formation, dominated by orientations of withdrawal from the legal space and propensity to violence.