English abstract

Abstract: Reframing Democratisation: Ethnopolitics, Exit and Voice in Georgia’s Troubled Transition

This article aims to highlight and problematise the boundaries of democratisation, with Georgia’s troubled transition as empirical point of reference. The argument proceeds from the established idea that democratisation requires a demos, the presence of which provides the state undergoing transition with horizontal legitimacy. However, there are no good ways of deciding where or how to draw the boundaries of democratisation in ethnopolitically contested states. Transitions occurring under such circumstances tend to be short-circuited. No nation wishes to be subjugated to the will of another nation within a state owned by another nation. Whether conflicts over the boundaries of democratisation are resolved to the satisfaction of the majority or minority depends to a significant degree – but by no means exclusively – on the vertical legitimacy of the host state. Depending on whether the relationship between the majority population and the state institutions is characterised by distrust or trust, the host state will be either weak or strong, and hence have low or high ability to contain resentful minorities. The article argues that, between 1991 and 2003, Georgia was characterised by low vertical legitimacy, whereas since 2004 the state has acquired higher vertical legitimacy.

Keywords: boundaries, democratisation, ethnopolitics, exit, Georgia, voice