Georgia

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Georgia, bordered by Russia on the north, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the southeast, Turkey on the southwest, and the Black Sea on the west, is situated on the dividing line between Europe and Asia. The total territory of Georgia is 69,700 square kilometers (43,312 square miles).

The total population of Georgia was estimated at 4.7 million in 2004. Approximately 70 percent of the people are Georgians. The rest are Armenian (8.1%), Russian (6.3%), Azeri (5.7%), Ossetian (3%), Abkhaz (1.8%), and other (5%). About 65 percent of the total population is Georgian Orthodox, 11 percent Muslim, 10 percent Russian Orthodox, 8 percent Armenian Apostolic, and 6 percent unknown. Tbilisi is the capital city.

After decades of domination by czarist Russia, Georgia became an independent country in May 1918. However, in 1921 Georgia was absorbed into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). A native son of Georgia, Joseph Stalin (1879–1953), was the Soviet Union's most brutal dictator from the 1920s until his death in 1953. After seventy years of the Soviet communist regime, Georgia declared its independence in 1991, when the USSR disintegrated.

Zviad Gamsakhurdia (1939–1993) was elected president in 1991 but was unseated in 1992 by a coup that installed Eduard Shevardnadze (b. 1928) as head of state. Shevardnadze subsequently won the presidential elections: first in 1995 and again in 2000. In 1995 and 1998 two assassination attempts were made against Shevardnadze. The irregularities of the 2003 parliamentary elections forced Shevardnadze to resign. Mikhail Saakashvili (b. 1967) resigned as Minister of Justice in 2001 and founded the United National Movement (later the National Movement), a political party under whose banner he won the 2004 presidential elections, garnering more than 96 percent of the vote.

In February 2004 the parliament amended the 1995 constitution to establish a French-style presidential-parliamentary system that passed power from the legislative to the executive. The president appoints a prime minister after consulting with the leaders of parliament. The prime minister then names ministers with the approval of the president. The president alone appoints the ministers of security, defense, and interior. The parliament can consider motions of confidence in the government and dismiss them with a majority vote. The president has the right to dismiss the parliament if the parliament fails to approve the government three times in a row or approve the nation's budget.

The president is elected by direct suffrage with a term of five years for a maximum of two consecutive terms. Georgia's unicameral parliament is the

supreme representative body of the country and exercises legislative power and general control over the Cabinet of Ministers. The parliament consists of 150 deputies elected by a proportional system and 85 deputies elected by a majoritarian system, all for a period of four years.

The judicial system is headed by the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court has nine members; three are appointed by the president, another three are elected by parliament, and the remaining three are appointed by the Supreme Court. The chief justice and judges of the Supreme Court are nominated by the president and elected by the parliament for a period of not less than ten years.

Most political parties are weak and unstable. Nevertheless, President Saakashvili's party won almost two-thirds of the seats in the March 2004 parliamentary elections.

Georgia is considered to have a democratic government. However, it has embarked on an uncertain path of democratic transition in the wake of the dissolution of the communist regime. Freedom House rates it as only partly free and gives it a middle rating of 4 on both its political rights and civil rights and liberties scales.

Gorbachev, Mikhail; Russia; Stalin, Joseph.

The Constitution of Georgia. <http://www.parliament.ge/LEGAL_ ACTS/CONSTITUTION/consten.html>.

"Georgia." In CIA World Factbook. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2005. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publicat ions/factbook/geos/gg.html>.

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Georgia and the South Caucasus: Challenges to Sustainable Democracy. Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2001.

Karatnycky, Adrian, et al., eds. Nations in Transit 2003: Democratization in East Central Europe and Eurasia. Baltimore, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

Phillips, David L. Stability, Security, and Sovereignty in the Republic of Georgia. New York: Center for Preventive Action, 2004. <http://www.cfr.org/pdf/Georgia. pdf/>.

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