RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN GEORGIA: POLITICAL PLATFORMS AND IDEOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATIONS
Keywords:
Georgia, Orthodoxy, the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church, nationalism, identity, political parties, conservatism, political Christianity.Abstract
The Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church plays a significant role in the political and intellectual life of Georgian society. Religious parties are active in Georgia’s political landscape. The ideologues and theorists of clerical parties are developing ideas and concepts of Georgian political nationalism and supporting the Georgian language and identity. The ideology of the clerical parties in Georgia is of a mixed nature. The religious parties are developing ideas of political traditionalism. Georgian conservative theorists also support liberal theories in the economic sphere. Political instability is promoting an increase in the moral and political authority of the Church in Georgia. The prospects for the development and transformation of clerical parties are vague and still uncertain.
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There has been very little study of the problems relating to the history and present-day ideology of Georgian parties in Russian political science, while the number of publications on this theme is very small. The cycle of articles by N. Devdar-iani and G. Vekua on parties is largely of an introductory and informative nature (see: N. Devdariani, “Edinoe natsionalnoe dvizhenie Gruzii,” available at [http://georgiamonitor.org/detail.php?ID=189&sphrase_id=570446], 21 March, 2014; idem,
Republikanskaia partiia Gruzii,” available at [http://georgiamonitor.org/detail.php?ID=233&sphrase_id=570446], 21 March,2014; G. Vekua, “Politicheskoe ob’edinenie ‘Natsionalnyy forum,’” available at [http://georgiamonitor.org/detail.
hp?ID=190&sphrase_id=570446], 21 March, 2014; idem, “Leiboristskaia partiia Gruzii,” available at [http://georgiamonitor.
rg/detail.php?ID=201&sphrase_id=570446], 21 March, 2014; idem, “Khristiansko-demokraticheskaia partiia Gruzii,” avail-able at [http://georgiamonitor.org/detail.php?ID=223&sphrase_id=570446], 21 марта 2014).
The Conservative Party was originally called The Union of National Forces—Conservatives. In 2002, the party joined a coalition with the United National Movement. In 2004, the party participated in the elections as part of the National Move-ment—Democrats bloc, and in 2012 supported The Georgian Dream (for more details on the history of the Conservative Party, see: [http://conservatives.ge]). The party leader is Zviad Dzidziguri.
The Christian-Democratic Movement was founded in 2008 by Giorgi Targamadze. It came third in the 2012 elections.
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