Scientific Foundations of Measuring Ideology and Political Orientation in Georgia: qualitative analysis of instruments

Abstract

The paper aims to contribute to laying the foundation for the scientific, evidence-based and systematized Georgian measurement instruments of ideology and political orientation. As a very small number of such tools (e.g., questionnaires, scales etc.) that exist at the moment are either philosophical-artistic artifacts based on a priori, rational reasoning of the authors or are simply (inappropriately adapted) translations of a foreign analogues, it is especially important to create a scientifically supported foundation for the given field. It is also important to systematize existing information. The main goal of this article is to determine what issues are key to measuring ideology or political orientation in Georgia and what is the optimal structure and format of the assessment tool, which would employ these issues. The present paper contributes to the cause by qualitative analyses of existing literature and inventories. It outlines the optimal model of conceptualizing ideological issues, as well as the hierarchy of importance
of the issues and constructs that would be used in such models. Other important recommendations are also presented.