Political Consulting in Georgia (qualitative analysis of twenty years experience of multiparty election campaign)

Abstract

                   The originals of political consulting had been formed event Before Christmas. The preparation for the elections during the election campaign was topical in every era. There always was Advisor Consultant side to side of politician. For the beginning of 1990s in Georgia, after 70 years Soviet governance had been made the first steps on the way of statehood. In the post-Soviet Georgia multiparty, competitive elections gave opportunity political parties to use Western countries experience in the term of political campaign. Transformation of the election campaign model began in a very hard condition, country development perspective, emerged after the independence was outweighed by military operations. In the second half of 1990s there was more stable condition in Georgia; however the fragmentation of the parties and weak institutionalization of party systems was unsolvable problem. The answer on the question – why happened intensive Americanization of political campaign during the “Rose Revolution” is clear: in the conditions where the role of mass media was increasing, the compensation of fragile ideological basis of political parties and weak representation of voters' interests should be carried out through the personalization of politics. In Georgia, like other new democracies the Americanization process of election campaign had been actively implemented. It is noteworthy that personalization of politics and fragile ideological and structural basis of Georgian party system were the main characteristics of the first years of independence. However strengthen of mass media and media technologies played turning role in the term of political campaign transformation. At the initial stage in the Post-Soviet Georgia the task of parties was mobilization of wide mass for demonstration. The comprehensive policy is explicit sign of the election campaign. In the Georgia mediatization of politics had been carried out gradually and reached to the peak during the “Rose Revolution.” In the initial stage of the professionalization of election campaign, the parties apply specialists (consultants) for help only in exceptional cases.