Georgia Unitary state

History and trends

Georgia is a presidential Republic. Its Constitution was adopted on 24 August 1995.

Ethnic Georgians make up 70% of the population, with Armenian, Russian, Abkhazian, Ossetian, Adjarian and other minorities accounting for the remainder. National unity has developed gradually over the years, although the country still retains unique local linguistic and cultural traits, which stem from its former kingdoms and principalities and continue to influence political life.

In March 1918, Tbilisi was briefly the capital of the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic – following the Russian Revolution and the collapse of the Russian Empire – before its division into three separate republics. Georgia was the first to declare independence, on 26 May 1918. Georgia signed a peace treaty with Soviet Russia on 7 May 1920, and was granted de jure recognition by the League of Nations in 1921. But the country was left to fend for itself by the Allies and was invaded by the Red Army on 16 February 1921.

Its former Menshevik leaders fled to Paris, where they formed a government in exile. A final, major armed uprising in 1924 was brutally repressed and Georgia was subsequently amalgamated into the USSR.

On 9 April 1991 (following the referendum of 31 March), Georgia was finally reinstated as an independent, democratic state 70 years after its abolition by the Bolsheviks, along with all its previous symbols (flag, hymn and Independence Day on 26 May).

Local level :

The local government landscape is subdivided into 10 administrative regions, each led by a governor appointed by the president.

Until 2006, there were more than 1,000 local government units (districts, communes and villages) – a legacy of the devolved state entities that existed during the Soviet era.

Prior to 2006, Georgia had:

• 998 communes/municipalities
• 55 districts, with councillors elected indirectly by communal/municipal councillors
• districts with councillors elected directly (in Adjara)
• 5,500 district, communal and municipal councillors
• 19 local government associations (NALAG, the national association, was founded in 2004 as a joint CoE/EU project).

The territory also included the Republic of Abkhazia and the Republic of South Ossetia (both of which seceded in 1991/1992), and the Autonomous Republic of Adjara.

In 2006, the government engaged in a major territorial reform with support from the Council of Europe, resulting in the merger of Georgia’s former districts, communes and villages into 68 municipalities, each covering between 4 and 32 settlements. The average population per municipality currently stands at 66,235. By comparison, the former communes had an average population of 4,354.

Today, there are 72 municipalities in Georgia (2016).