What Should the Georgia's Legislative Body Be Titled: The Ideological Context of Re-Naming the National Council of Georgia (Based on the Verbatim Report of the October 4, 1918 Session of the National Council of Georgia)

Abstract

This article analyzes the verbatim report of the October 4, 1918 session of the National Council of Georgia, where the renaming of the country's legislative body was on the agenda. The study demonstrates that the terminological debates surrounding the terms "Parliament" (Parlamenti/პარლამენტი), "Assembly" (Darbazi/დარბაზი), and "Council" (Sabcho/საბჭო) transcended narrow philological boundaries and constituted a critical precedent of ideological and cultural-orientational struggle within the political elite of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. Utilizing critical discourse analysis, the article examines the confrontation between the Western political universalism (Social Democrats) and national-historical authenticity (the opposition). The study demonstrates that these debates reflected Georgia’s transformation from the ethnocentric model of the National Council into a multiethnic, civic republic. This shift was manifested in the rejection of the word "National" (Erovnuli/ეროვნული) by all factions, as it was equated with ethnicity at the time. The analysis of the political anatomy of the voting process illustrates the ruling party’s employment of strict party discipline and the principle of majoritarian democracy. The study concludes that the decision made on October 4, 1918, laid the foundation for the contemporary institutional and legal language of independent Georgia, which was reflected in the 1921 Constitution and to which the country naturally returned in the Constitution of 1995.

This work was supported by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG) under the grant project: "At the Origins of Modern Georgian Parliamentarism: The National Council of Georgia – The Parliament of Georgia." Grant code: FR-23-2950.