The Political Constraints for Civil Service Reform in Georgia: History, Current Affairs, Prospects & Challenges

Abstract

This study presents an overview of the reforms of the civil service of Georgia since independence. These developments can be grouped into 4 distinct periods. First one encompasses the time immediately after independence until the adoption of the Law on Civil Service in 1997. The secondlasts until the end of the President Shevardnadze’s Government as a result of the Rose Revolution in
November, 2003. The third period encompasses the next 9 years when President Saakashvili and his United National Movement (UNM) was in charge of the country. The last period starts with the electoral victory of the Georgian Dream (GD) coalition in the parliamentary elections in 2012 when the power changed hands through democratic process for the first time in Georgian history since formally becoming the independent nation in 1992.