Freedom House reports: Georgia is moving towards autocracy

Georgia becoming an autocracy

In its 2024 report, the non-governmental organization Freedom House declares that Georgia is evolving into a semi-consolidated authoritarian regime. In a study evaluating the level of democracy in states from Central Europe to Central Asia, Georgia, along with Hungary and Serbia, is grouped among the countries moving towards autocracy.

Authoritarian leadership in CIS countries: How presidents maintain decades-long power"

Leading up to the presidential elections in Azerbaijan and Russia, we have compiled an overview detailing how the leaders of the CIS countries have maintained their hold on power.

The report on Georgia states:

• Hybrid states moving towards authoritarianism, such as Hungary, Serbia, and to a lesser extent Georgia, according to the report’s methodology, are evolving into semi-consolidated authoritarian regimes.
• Key institutions, from media to judicial power, have exceeded the politicization boundaries of the classic definition of hybrid regimes and are now effectively under the control of ruling parties and used by them for their own purposes.

NGO: Georgian authorities hinder EU integration by not vetting judges

The ruling party “Georgian Dream” asserts that the involvement of foreign partners in this process will jeopardize the country’s sovereignty

• Despite turbulent political years for both the urban and rural populations in these countries, the evaluation of Hungary, Georgia, and Kosovo remains unchanged.
• In March 2023, Georgia’s civil society narrowly averted a threat when mass mobilization of citizens and international pressure forced the government to withdraw the “foreign agent” bill.
• When both local and international advocacy is sufficiently strong, it is possible for subcategories of hybrid regimes to revert back, as demonstrated by Georgia’s freedom in March 2023, following widespread international declarations and mass protests against the Russian-style “foreign agents” law.
• The distinction between autocratic hybrid regimes and semi-consolidated authoritarian regimes is minimal, although the real divide lies between respecting the freedom of assembly and the fact that the state rarely resorts to physical violence to suppress dissent.

Georgia's Parliament is debating the "foreign agents law," risking its European future. Explainer

A key difference of this law from similar ones in the West is that there, the targeted countries are explicitly named