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We are not enemies, we just disagree...?

Westesson, Elin LU (2017) STVM25 20171
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Since independence, Georgia’s political trajectory of democratic development has become all the more aimed towards integration with the EU and further disassociation from the Soviet past and Russia. By the engagements facilitated through the EU’s Eastern Partnership and the Association Agreement, the narrative of Georgian national identity as fundamentally European is seen as an all-encompassing consensus that lies as a ground for the envisaging of the process of democratic development. Such an establishment and commitment to a consensus does according to the agonistic approach to democracy inhibit an inclusive process with open possibilities for contestation. Through semi-structured interviews with actors from the political realm and the... (More)
Since independence, Georgia’s political trajectory of democratic development has become all the more aimed towards integration with the EU and further disassociation from the Soviet past and Russia. By the engagements facilitated through the EU’s Eastern Partnership and the Association Agreement, the narrative of Georgian national identity as fundamentally European is seen as an all-encompassing consensus that lies as a ground for the envisaging of the process of democratic development. Such an establishment and commitment to a consensus does according to the agonistic approach to democracy inhibit an inclusive process with open possibilities for contestation. Through semi-structured interviews with actors from the political realm and the civil society, the role of contestation in the process of democratic development in Georgia was explored in a narrative analysis informed by the agonistic approach to democracy. This study concludes that despite that there is no legal hindrances for contestation in the Georgian political environment, the normative approach towards anti-Western sentiments and the view of politics as an antagonistic zero-sum game stifles the possibilities for agonistic contestation. All the while, the civil society is utilized instrumentally to display a political setting where contestation plays a role in informing the process of democratic development. (Less)
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author
Westesson, Elin LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
An agonistic analysis of the role of contestation in the process of democratic development in Georgia
course
STVM25 20171
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Georgia, contestation, agonism, inclusion, democratic development, depoliticization
language
English
id
8907426
date added to LUP
2017-06-27 15:05:19
date last changed
2017-06-27 15:05:19
@misc{8907426,
  abstract     = {{Since independence, Georgia’s political trajectory of democratic development has become all the more aimed towards integration with the EU and further disassociation from the Soviet past and Russia. By the engagements facilitated through the EU’s Eastern Partnership and the Association Agreement, the narrative of Georgian national identity as fundamentally European is seen as an all-encompassing consensus that lies as a ground for the envisaging of the process of democratic development. Such an establishment and commitment to a consensus does according to the agonistic approach to democracy inhibit an inclusive process with open possibilities for contestation. Through semi-structured interviews with actors from the political realm and the civil society, the role of contestation in the process of democratic development in Georgia was explored in a narrative analysis informed by the agonistic approach to democracy. This study concludes that despite that there is no legal hindrances for contestation in the Georgian political environment, the normative approach towards anti-Western sentiments and the view of politics as an antagonistic zero-sum game stifles the possibilities for agonistic contestation. All the while, the civil society is utilized instrumentally to display a political setting where contestation plays a role in informing the process of democratic development.}},
  author       = {{Westesson, Elin}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{We are not enemies, we just disagree...?}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}