INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL "THE CAUCASUS AND THE WORLD"

Sopo   Chkopoia

Doctor of Social Sciences, Associate Professor, East European University, Master’s Degree Program in Public Administration (Georgia)

Elections and the electoral process play a significant role in any democratic state’s political life. The Institution of Elections is not new for world history, but Psychology, the science about elections, is brand new. Each state has its own characterized features on its path of freedom and democracy, where elections and the electoral process take a big part.
The formation of political parties started in the XVIII century in Great Britain, however, society’s attitude towards them was negative from the beginning, since it was considered that they contributed to the agitation in the society, and were represented as the defenders of only one side.
George Washington considered that ‘’parties were agitating public’s opinion’’. Universal suffrage, government equilibrium, and pluralism was formed at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Nowadays, the progress of democracy is incredulous without pluralism.
According to Max Weber, the winner in politics was a demagogue, who had the opportunity to use democratic illusions for government appropriation. He did not consider democracy as a shield against dictatorship, but he allowed the public to find the leader. As stated by Weber, for democratic systems to be effective, it is necessary:
To exist parties of different interests and views, because the voter can not make a choice if there are no differences between the parties. Webber did not consider the one-party system democratic.
There must exist politicians who can handle pressure from the bureaucracy. Rulership from the elite is inevitable, and from the democratic view, in a better case, we can hope that elite structures will effectively represent the public’s interests.[1].
Rousseau believed that those who were dependent on others in their activities or lived on rent, should not have voting rights.
Hamilton stated that wealthy people should be given the right to take part in the voting process since broad masses are unreasonable and hesitant.
There is a neverending debate over the topics of democracy and elections, and the literature around these topics is also various.  Public Political Administration as well as any other system should be dynamic and stable, modernization of management systems require service-orientated, flexible system functioning.
Effective public administration means the optimal and rational use of resources available in the country. The functioning of state apparatus does not include only administrational functions, it should create new and help to develop conceptual aspects of management for future perspectives.
The government, which comes to power through democratic elections and takes over the government legitimately, should be independent, during the formation of both – foreign and domestic policy, since it is held accountable to the people. Transparent and fair elections become the cornerstone for any democratic country, it is the best technology for renewing public political administration.The electoral system unifies the processes and ways that regulate and provides the legitimate formation of state representative organs of political power [2].  It should fit those individual needs that the country needs at the given moment, which defines the state’s political agenda. There are 12 major electoral models used in democratic countries.
Georgia has repeatedly executed changes around the rule of parliament choosing. In November of 2019, constitutional reform failed, according to which – the country was supposed to fully transition into a proportional system. The subject of dispute became a separation of electoral models.
In any country electoral system functions in legislative frameworks, where statutes from the country’s constitution are detailed.  A considerable source for electoral law is Georgia’s constitution from 1995, where the basic principles of electoral law are given.
According to The Constitution of Georgia, Chapter Two, Fundamental Human Rights, Article 24:
Suffrage Every citizen of Georgia from the age of 18 has the right to participate in the referendum, in the elections of state, an autonomous republic, and local self-government. The free will of the elector is secured.
Citizen does not have the right to participate in the electoral process, if they are in a penitentiary institution for a major crime by court order, or they are recognized as a  support recipient by a court decision and are placed in a medical facility.
The organic law of Georgia, election code of Georgia regulates:
The relations related to the preparation and holding of the elections of the President, the Parliament, the representative body of the municipality –local assembly, the executive body of the municipality – the mayoral elections, performing the referendum and the plebiscite. Establishes the rights, obligations, and guarantees of the participants in the elections establishes the rule of ensuring legality and transparency of election/referendum campaign expenses, the rule, and authority of establishing the election administration of Georgia. It as well establishes the procedure for reviewing disputes and imposing liability in cases provided for by law. [3].
The electoral system includes the rules, by which the votes are converted into mandates.
In any democratic country, the electoral system is correspondent to the country’s legal culture. Our society has never been enthusiastic about the majoritarian system, due to vicious practices, there have been many cases of bribing people of power and so the society’s negative feedback increased in the last few years. Switching to the proportional electoral system was planned for 2024, but the agreement couldn’t happen due to sides not agreeing on the process of distributing mandates. They decided on a 3% electoral barrier, which was acceptable for small political parties since it was giving them the chance to enter the legislature.
Every citizen of Georgia always stays as a source of power, not only during the elections but after that it too. According to the constitution, article 5, citizens have the right to participate in the decision-making process.
Each democratic country views the elections as a process that helps the participation of citizens in the formation of political systems.
Elections mean taking over the power in a peaceful way, by the will of the majority, it is a process of exchanging power from one group to the other. But Georgia’s political culture does not remember the practice of compromises and agreements, which interrupts to process of democratization. For Georgian political parties, the pre-election process involves parties exposing each other, media sources play a big role in spreading that information. Sometimes some of them spread biased information. Media plays a big role in influencing the audience.
Through mass media, press, radio, and such sources, necessary information is being provided to submit public decisions. Mentioned means influence state policy management issues. It is important to cover objective information, which Georgia lacks significantly. Citizens interpret certain information according to how it was brought to them, the role of mass media in the process of formation and formation of public awareness is quite large, which is well reflected in the society of our country, received information has a big impact on how certain political issues are implemented.
It is important for political experts, as well as state representatives, to establish a strong and active relationship with the media.
One of the methods for state management is information superiority. Nowadays media is being called the fourth government which is a condition from media’s influential ability over society’s opinions and behavior.
The election represents a political market in highly developed countries too, but unlike them, where programs are being ‘’sold’’, here it’s usually the person who is mainly offered as ‘’a product’’, which indicates that the electoral market is not developed, since marker should be quality orientated, unlike our practice. [4].
Despite everything, we can not avoid that the role of election is an important part of the public political management system, for both democratic and democratizing countries.
The quality of public political management is depended on the quality of the state’s democracy. We can judge the state of a country’s democracy or the lack of it after we see on what principles elections are based on. A country’s legislation is based on democracy is as important as its difficulty of implementing it in practice. Especially, when we highlight the fact that Georgia’s legal-political culture lacks actions based on compromises. These facts reflect negatively on electors, along with the constant change of legislation, which is conditioned from the fact that Georgia’s electoral system corresponds to transitional type countries system and it requires improvement and development until we will result in significant progress and gain society’s full trust since the whole point of the law is their public’s faith in them.

Bibliography:

[1]. Matsaberidze M., ‘’Elections and the Society’’, Open Society Georgia., Tbilisi., 2003.
[2]. Gurgenidze V., ‘’Theory and Practice of Public Political Administration’’(Political-Legal Paradigms), Kalmosani Publishing.,Tbilisi.,2014.
[3]. Election Code of Georgia. Organic Law of Georgia.
https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/1557168?publication=69
[4]. “Assessment of the Quality of Democracy in Georgia in 1990-2017”, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information.
[5]. Zhorzholiani G., Berikashvili T., Muskhilishvili M., ‘’Demoratization, Public in Transformative Periods: Democratization in Modern World’’., ‘’Open Society Georgia’’., Tbilisi.,2001.
[6]. M.Matsaberidze, Political Communication: Poolitical Marketing and Political Advertisement. Tbilisi.,2004.
[7]. Elections and Demoracy. Electoral Journal N1.
https://rm.coe.int/journal-final/16809ee2d3

                                                                                                   Софо  Чкофоия
Доктор социальных наук, ассоциированный   профессор  Университета  Восточной Европы. (Грузия)

           Выборы  как  технология обновления общественно – политического управления

                                                                                                        Резюме
Выборы и избирательные процессы являются краеугольными камнями демократии для любой страны. Выборы в любой демократической среде выражают свободную волю человека, и поэтому жизненно важно обеспечить прозрачные и объективные выборы для поддержания демократической среды. Выборы являются жизненно важной функцией в любом государстве. Они также занимают важное место в политической жизни переходного типа государств.
Всеобщее избирательное право, равновесие властей и плюрализм сформировались в конце XIX и начале XX веков. Сегодня развитие демократия буквально немыслимо без плюрализма.
По мнению ученых классического периода, отношение выборам и избирательным процессом различно. Например- Руссо считал, что правом голоса не должны обладать те, кто зависел от других в своей деятельности или жил на арендную плату.
А по словам Гамильтона, способные люди должны иметь право участвовать в выборах, потому что широкие массы неразумны и колеблющие.
Прозрачные и справедливые выборы напрямую связаны с демократией. Эффективность государственного управления предполагает оптимальное и рациональное использование ресурсов, имеющихся в стране. Функционирование государственного аппарата не только включает в себя функции управления, оно должно создавать новые и также поддерживать перспективам дальнейшего развития концептуальных аспектов управления. Правительство, которое приходит к власти в результате демократических выборов, полностью легитимно принимает власть. И вот поэтому оно должно быть независимым в формировании и реализации как во внешней, так и внутренней политики. Оно подотчетно перед народом. Прозрачные и справедливые выборы являются краеугольным камнем любой демократической страны. Это лучшая технология для обновления общественно-политического управления.
В любой демократической стране избирательная система соответствует правовой культуре страны, в том числе Грузии. Каждый гражданин Грузии остается постоянным источником власти не только во время выборов, но и в период после них. Каждая демократическая страна воспринимает выборы как процесс, который помогает обеспечить участие граждан в формах политической системы. Несмотря на все это мы не можем обойти стороной тот факт, что роль выборов в системе публично-государственного управления неизмеримо велико для государств, находящихся на пути как демократии, так и демократизации.