Some observers refer to the events in Georgia as a surprise breakthrough of democracy. Others point out that the leaders who deposed the president were among the top ten leaders of Shevardnadze’s own Citizens Union of Georgia in the 1999 parliamentary elections. Thus, the critics say no significant political change has occurred. To put Georgia’s “revolution of roses” in a proper context, it is necessary to analyze the pressures that the country’s social and partisan environment put on the political system that became personally associated with Shevardnadze since the 1990s. Only by fusing both of these observations can we tell a story of emergence of the country’s democratic institutions, party politics, and failed reform.
