The Georgia Governance Index: the Country’s Record “Suboptimal”

The Georgian Institute of Politics published the third iteration of the Georgia Governance Index (GGI) revealing a mixed picture, with Georgia showing “suboptimal governance in all four areas” measured by the document. The country’s record is “uneven” in the areas of effective governance and declined further in external governance.

The document notes that the sector of democratic governance, however, witnessed the most substantial improvement, attributing this primarily to the “democratic resilience exhibited by civil society, the increasing independence of the presidential office, and, to a lesser extent, noteworthy progress in the democratic functioning of key state institutions.”  

The four principal domains evaluated by the survey are: democracy and human rights (democratic governance), the efficiency of state institutions (effective governance), socio-economic policies (socio-economic governance), and foreign and security policy (external governance). Methodologically, the GGI integrates both qualitative and quantitative research methods and epistemologies. Its scoring system derives from the GGI Expert Survey, conducted with 47 experts from various fields in Georgia, and is enhanced by qualitative research performed by the GIP team.

Democratic Governance

Democratic governance is “far from optimal” the survey says, with 41.65 out of 100 points. The main problematic issues included political crisis, persistent polarization, stalled judicial reform, proposed laws against freedom of expression, hostility towards media and civil society, and attempts to weaken horizontal accountability. Nevertheless, democratic governance made the most significant jump in the 2023 GGI survey, rising from 27.33 in 2022 to 41.65 in 2023 – likely reflecting the high score given to the civil society component.

Lack of success in judicial reform is identified as  key weakness for Georgian democracy in this category. In comparison to last year, the score for judicial independence further declined in the 2023 GGI expert survey. Lack of judicial independence and competence is one of the key challenges named in the survey.

Effective Governance

Effective governance remains a major challenge for Georgia and remains a problematic category in 2023. This area received the second lowest score in the expert survey (33.26 points out of 100), after foreign policy governance.

As in 2022, the leading problems in 2023 were informal governance, political corruption, monopolization of power, and the lack of an independent judiciary. It was repeatedly observed that the state uses its legitimate power sparingly against violent groups while consistently restricting the constitutionally guaranteed rights of political opponents and minorities of political opponents and minorities. In addition, throughout 2023, the illegal borderization and the abduction of Georgian citizens by the Russian occupation regime persisted unabated.

The challenges posed by informal governance and the presence of alternative sources of legitimacy persisted in 2023, exacerbated by the monopolization of power by the ruling political party, the fragility of political institutions, and the ineffectiveness of an independent judiciary.

The formulation of a new public administration strategy, accompanied by an action plan, is a step towards improvement, the survey reads.

Socio-Economic Governance

The overall score in socio-economic governance in 2023 stood at 38.22. The GGI survey score in social and economic governance was the second highest of the governance areas. This relatively positive score is attributed to sustained economic growth, a slowdown in inflationary pressures and some positive steps taken in social policy, mainly towards persons with disabilities.

As was the case in 2022, the lowest score was attained in the economic framework and labor market policy. Although the unemployment rate fell further in 2023, poverty and other economic hurdles remain a major concern for the public. Low wages and a lack of job opportunities remain the main reasons for labor emigration from Georgia.

External Governance

The experts’ overall GGI score for external governance fell from 32.77 to 26.42 out of a possible 100 points. This dynamic was caused by a combination of positive and negative factors in Georgia’s external governance. As the assessment shows, the areas of regression or stagnation outnumbered those in which essential achievements were made in 2023. The document notes that while Georgia was granted EU candidate status in 2023, its relations with the EU have become increasingly “unpredictable” and the country’s low degree of alignment with the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the Union caused concern in the EU.

On the other hand, Georgia has not progressed on the path to NATO membership, as demonstrated by the results of the 2023 NATO Summit, while Georgia’s close ties with illiberal regimes in Europe as well as strategic partnership with China raised concerns about the country’s foreign policy vector, notes the document.

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