THE POLITICAL INSTRUMENTALIZATION OF LAWMAKING IN GEORGIA AS A TOOL FOR AUTHORITARIAN CONSOLIDATION

Abstract

In Georgia, constitutional reform and ongoing legislative amendments have persistently constituted the principal sources of political contention between ruling and opposition parties. Nonetheless, contestation concerning both the regulatory scope and substantive content of legislation exceeded the conventional parameters of partisan polarization in 2022, upon the initiation of the “Foreign Agents Registration Act.” The ensuing opposition was no longer confined to political actors; civil society organizations and ordinary citizens also became active participants in the resistance.

This article examines the use of legislation as a mechanism for the entrenchment of authoritarian governance in Georgia and assesses the prospects of such an undertaking. In particular, it considers the extent to which authoritarian consolidation may be implemented through legislative measures that are formally democratic in appearance, as well as the implications of such measures for the protection of human rights within the country. For this purpose, the article undertakes an analysis of the normative justifications advanced for the adoption of new statutes and amendments to existing legislation by the Parliament of Georgia in recent years. Furthermore, the article evaluates the role of the judiciary in facilitating its own instrumentalization as an element that, through the operation of these legislative acts, constitutes an important factor in the potential consolidation of authoritarian rule.