Georgia—Backstage Decisions, Frontstage Agenda, and the Return of Political Activism

The present chapter discusses the rise of informal governance and its impact on governmental decisions in Georgia within the last decade. It shows how the ruling party is controlled by an oligarch occasionally reemerging on the political front stage or retreating to the political backstage. The oligarch’s influence on the government’s strategic decisions is exemplified based on large-scale environmental projects as well as choices related to the country’s foreign policy course. It is these backstage decisions and their harmful effect on the country’s democratic development that are resisted by the civil society and citizens in Georgia, the most recent case of which is represented by public protest against the so-called Foreign Agents law. The paper follows the developments that affect a shift from policy-oriented activism to the political one and shows how the state reacts to various occasions of public protest, as well as how civic activists and citizens resist the authorities’ attempts to challenge their actions.