Georgia from National Awakening to Rose Revolution ― Delayed Transition in the Former Soviet Union

Jonathan Wheatley examines the tortuous process of regime change in Georgia from the first pro-independence protests of 1988 to the aftermath of the so-called Rose Revolution in 2004. It is set within a comparative framework that includes other transition countries, particularly those in the former Soviet Union. The book provides two important theoretical innovations: the notion of a regime, which is an under-theorized concept in the field of transition literature, and O'Donnell, Schmitter and Karl's notion of a dynamic actor-driven transition. The volume turns to the structural constraints that framed the transition in Georgia and in other republics of the former Soviet Union by looking at the state and society in the USSR at the close of the Soviet period. It examines the evolution and nature of the Georgian regime, and ultimately addresses the theoretical and empirical problems posed by Georgia's so-called Rose Revolution following the falsification of parliamentary elections by the incumbent authorities.

Jonathan Wheatley is Research Fellow at the Osteuropa Institute of the Free University Berlin, Germany. He is part of a project called 'Accounting for State-Building, Stability and Violent Conflict: The Institutional Framework of Caucasian and Central Asian Transitional Societies'. The project explores the conditions for successful/failed defusing of conflict potential in Caucasian and Central Asian societies within the context of successful/failed state building.