{"id":679,"date":"2019-09-15T21:03:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T21:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demsecinstitute.org\/?p=679"},"modified":"2024-09-04T18:34:09","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T18:34:09","slug":"tearing-apart-what-drives-political-polarisation-in-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demsecinstitute.org\/?p=679","title":{"rendered":"Tearing apart: what drives political polarisation in Georgia?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1430\">Lessons learnt from the 2018 Presidential elections<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>By <a href=\"https:\/\/demsecinstitute.org\/?page_id=395\">Tornike Zurabashvili<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Tornike Zurabashvili is an independent political analyst based in Tbilisi, Georgia. From December 2016 through June 2019, he edited Civil.ge, Georgia\u2019s leading English-language daily news and analytical platform. He is currently a fellow at the Eurasia Democratic Security Network.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Find the Georgian version of this article&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/strengthening-political-pluralism-in-georgia\/%E1%83%A8%E1%83%A3%E1%83%90%E1%83%96%E1%83%94-%E1%83%92%E1%83%90%E1%83%AE%E1%83%9A%E1%83%94%E1%83%A9%E1%83%90-%E1%83%A0%E1%83%90-%E1%83%9B%E1%83%90%E1%83%A0%E1%83%97%E1%83%90%E1%83%95%E1%83%A1-%E1%83%9E%E1%83%9D%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%E1%83%A2%E1%83%98%E1%83%99%E1%83%A3%E1%83%A0-%E1%83%9E%E1%83%9D%E1%83%9A%E1%83%90%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%E1%83%96%E1%83%90%E1%83%AA%E1%83%98%E1%83%90%E1%83%A1-%E1%83%A1%E1%83%90%E1%83%A5%E1%83%90%E1%83%A0%E1%83%97%E1%83%95%E1%83%94%E1%83%9A%E1%83%9D%E1%83%A8%E1%83%98-476b5bdf1aec\">here<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This article explores the phenomenon of polarisation in the Georgian context. It does so by scrutinising the underpinnings of political division during the country\u2019s most-recent nationwide polls \u2014 Presidential election of 2018. Although Presidents carry a largely ceremonial role in Georgia, the campaign was characterised by an unprecedented degree of polarisation \u2014 radicalisation of public opinion, verbal attacks and active smear campaigns in social media dominated the pre-election environment. This article attempts to understand the sources of such extreme polarisation. To do so, it reviews the political context behind the Presidential election. It then provides an overview of campaign strategies of two major contenders \u2014 the Georgian Dream-backed Salome Zurabishvili and Grigol Vashadze of the United Opposition. It also examines the role of television and social media in fueling partisan divisions. The paper concludes that the degree of polarisation reached a dangerous threshold during the Presidential election and that it could potentially threaten the country\u2019s democratic record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/strengthening-political-pluralism-in-georgia\/tearing-apart-what-drives-political-polarisation-in-georgia-f40088e5a5a2\">Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lessons learnt from the 2018 Presidential elections By Tornike Zurabashvili Tornike Zurabashvili is an independent political analyst based in Tbilisi, Georgia. From December 2016 through June 2019, he edited Civil.ge, Georgia\u2019s leading English-language daily news and analytical platform. He is currently a fellow at the Eurasia Democratic Security Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-publications"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tearing apart: what drives political polarisation in Georgia? - Democratic Security Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/demsecinstitute.org\/?p=679\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tearing apart: what drives political polarisation in Georgia? - Democratic Security Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lessons learnt from the 2018 Presidential elections By Tornike Zurabashvili Tornike Zurabashvili is an independent political analyst based in Tbilisi, Georgia. From December 2016 through June 2019, he edited Civil.ge, Georgia\u2019s leading English-language daily news and analytical platform. 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