Georgia’s Political Landscape

Most parties on Georgia’s Political Compass are either left-wing and culturally conservative, right-wing and liberal, or positing themselves in the political center, leaving two empty spots in the Liberal Left corner and the Conservative Right corner, respectively. Consequently, voters positioning themselves in one of those corners are underrepresented in Georgian politics.

Furthermore, political ideologies matter little in political competitions. The data shows that there is no extreme polarization of the parties’ policy position in Georgia. On the contrary: In 15 out of 30 policy issues, the two largest political parties’ (GD and UNM) position overlap. As a consequence, it can be assumed that voters’ decisions will continue to be influenced by personality politics rather than based on party programs, if they are not provided with different policy options.

The data represented in the report was collected through the “Election Compass Georgia 2020” – a Voting Advice Application (VAA) created to help voters navigate through a complex political landscape during the parliamentary elections in Georgia in 2020. The Compass was used about 38,000 times in the run-up to the elections. 

Levan Kakhishvili, David Keshelava, Giorgi Papava, David Sichinava

Tbilisi, October 2021

Please note that the Election Compass Georgia 2020 data is now available on the Dutch National Centre of Expertise and Repository for Research Data website.  The data is accessible via the DOI link: Krouwel, A., Kutiyski, YK, Papava, G., Keshelava, D., Chitanava, M., Sichinava, D. and L. Kakhishvili  (2020): Election Compass Georgia 2020. DANS. https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-xmh-6u66