Constitutional upheavals are rare but in Georgia, they come repeatedly (1992, 2003, and as of this week, now 2024). We might even call them revolutions, not ideologically, but in the broad sense of mass mobilisation, a forced transfer of power, and the passing of sovereignty to a new group of rulers.
Over the past three decades, these types of revolutions have become endemic in the Georgian political system. Persistently, democratic breakthroughs in the country lead not to institutionalised democracy, but to corrupt and unaccountable governance.
Today, the Georgian government is led by an oligarchic organisation called Georgian Dream, which started as a “democratic breakthrough”. It is not a functioning political party anymore. It is controlled by a select group of people around a single billionaire, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in Georgia, who serves as the organisation‘s honorary chairman. In reality, he is the unaccountable and unchecked ruler of the country.
