Tbilisi Mayorial Elections (Comparative Analysis of Successful Candidates in 2010, 2014 and 2017 Years)

Abstract

In the present work, we are reviewing Tbilisi mayoral elections in 2010, 2014 and 2017 years. The modern democratic states recognize and adopt the self-government forms. Georgia has made the first steps toward self-government for the beginning of the last century, Georgia has made the first steps toward self-government for the beginning of the last century, however, due to the historical and political situation we couldn't get essential results and experience in this respect. The self-government activities in the country began only from the second part of the 1990s, and step by step along with the carried out reforms has been formed the present self-government form. In the 2014 year has been obtained "The Organic Law of Georgia, Local Self-Government Code."

It is interesting, from this perspective, how will we evaluate Tbilisi mayoral elections. We have chosen Tbilisi as an object of our study because it is capital of Georgia and tightly populated city. Our goal was:

-   To determine which election strategies (technologies) were used;

-   To highlight the decisive factors;

-   To determine the role of specific environment;

-   To evaluate gained experience;

Our theoretical frame is based on the theories of Political Marketing and Marketing Parties, according to which we have analyzed the mentioned election campaigns. In the post-Soviet space political landscape and approach of political parties to political technologies differs from the West one. We tried to analyze Tbilisi mayoral elections in the context of political marketing, to allocate its basic characteristics and find an explanation for them.