DEMOCRATIZATION AND EUROPEANIZATION IN GEORGIA: A PATH TOWARDS DEMOCRACY?
The current anti-democratic pushback in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood suggests that Soviet legacy is still resilient in post-Soviet space.
The independence of Georgia from the Soviet Union resulted in the restoration of the idea of “return to Europe.” In addition to the “ideational” re-emergence of Europe at the discursive level, institutional cooperation between Georgia and the EU gained momentum especially after the Rose Revolution. Consequently, the country has taken important legislative and institutional steps towards democratic consolidation as a part of its Europeanization process. Despite these steps, however, Georgia’s democratization process currently faces certain hardships.
In her presentation, Dr. Yelda Karadağ, post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Black Sea and Central Asia (KORA) at METU, will discuss the relation between democratization and Europeanization in Georgia to evaluate to what extent the Georgian Europeanization would trigger democratization in the country. She will also elaborate important crossroads that led to the current democratic backsliding.
The conference will be in English. There will be no translation service.