From the Authors. This paper aims to draw conclusions on what the Rose Revolution has brought to Georgia. Almost 9 years have passed since this event, so it is completely appropriate to consider coming to conclusions — all the more so as critically important parliamentary elections await the nation. These elections will be an opportunity for the people to deliver a verdict on the Rose government. These upcoming elections will be a watershed for this nation regardless of which political forces are victorious. The Rose Revolution stage in the life of Georgia is coming to a close. Against this background several independent experts from the world of politics and economics have tried to focus on the most critical aspects of the life of the country and in looking at these areas offer for the reader’s consideration the most important facts which are of most import in the political and economic life of the country. The role of the analyst is to pick out the most important facts for the people and the state from the plethora of information. Politicians are used to manipulating with facts, blowing insignifi cant events out of proporation, and to playing down the importance of signifi cant events when this serves their interests. This is quite noticeable in Georgia, where the ruling party tries to shift the people’s attention from matters of primary importance to secondary ones (for example, laying asphalt compared to the unemployment situation is a secondary issue). And the opposition for a variety of reasons is not in a position to counter the propaganda efforts of the powers that be. So, this paper seeks to at least partially to fi ll the information vacuum and lay the foundation for a deeper analysis and study of this stage in Georgia’s most current history.
This paper has been written intentionally in accessible language and has not been weighed down with statistics and bibliographic references. To completely omit statistical data would also be wrong, and this was also taken into consideration by the authors. Even though this paper considers the Rose Revolution critically, we believe this analysis is objective. Not one critical observation is put forth here without supporting facts. And each fact is either common knowledge or can be confirmed if the reader so wishes.
