Browsing by Author "Kevkhishvili, Mariana"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Lobbying in Georgia(Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi state university, Faculty of social and political sciences, 2019-06) Kevkhishvili, Mariana; ქევხიშვილი, მარიანაThe study is focused on the influence of non-governmental organizations on the public policy in the period of “Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia” governing. According to my judgement, in the conditions established by the new government starting from 2012, NGOs have been out of the capacity to influence the law-making process in the country. My judgement is backed up by the fact, that the leader of the party Bidzina Ivanishvili, according to his own words, has a sceptical attitude towards the third sector. In his speeches, he often attacks NGOs, relevantly, the majority of the Georgian Parliament, giving consideration to his judgements and attitudes, does not adopt the draft laws advanced by NGOs or does not take their remarks and substantiated opinions into account in the process of adoption of laws. The main goal of the study is to determine the level of influence, that the non-governmental organizations, engaged in advocating politics, have on the law-making process. We studied the issue of the adoption/rejection of the draft laws presented by NGOs to the parliament of Georgia in the years 2012-2018. The study covered the extent, to which non-governmental organizations managed to achieve the desired results for the draft laws advanced by them. In this process, studying the Georgian media is important, as it shows the attempts exercised by NGOs toward making this or that issue a subject of awareness and importance in the society. Their messages are directed toward both, mobilizing the public attention and bringing the relevant information to the knowledge of the members of the government. Therefore, the third sector is trying to lobby the issue through the mass media and obtaining the desirable decisions from the policy-makers. The question to be studied is: what is the level of influence, the non- governmental sector has upon the law-creating process in the period of the Georgian Dream government? Baumgartner and Jones' punctuated equilibrium theory and the path- departing change model were used as the theoretic framework. These theories explain the model of policy changes. According to the punctuated equilibrium theory, the long period of policy-making stability may be interrupted by a drastic change in a critical moment. But the players supporting status-quo are stronger than those voting for the policy changing. Although the successful campaign of advocating carried out by the policy course change supporters cause change of the status-quo. To study the Georgian media, we used the Framing’s method, that studies the way journalists separate out political information and get it ready for presentation before the public. They naturally create frames, when they bring news and narratives to our notice, thus creating a public opinion. Through these frame issues are given specific contents by way of underlining, interpretation and deduction. Content analysis was used as the method for this study. Through this method we studied the information published on the web-page of the Georgian parliament, concerning all the draft laws advanced and proposed by non-governmental organizations and the Georgian media reporting political issues.Item United National Movement′s Lobbying Campaign in the USA(2020) Kevkhishvili, MarianaHiring of American lobbyists has become a regular practice in the Georgian reality. The printed media and the society suspect to find traces of lobbying behind the success gained by the political figures in the West, especially when we speak about the assessment in Georgia of the positive responses from the media and the Congressmen in the USA. Both the presently acting in Georgia governing party and the former one that has already moved to the opposition are launching lobbying activities in the USA. The study surveyes the lobbying activities carried out by United National Movementის in the USAsince 2012. We suppose that the higher the financial means of a political party, the larger the scope of the lobbying campaign performed by it in the USD. In the course of the study we reviewed the four documents that are uploaded on the American Department of Justice web-page Fara.gov. These four contracts provide the terms and conditions of the agreement between the parties thereto on the lobby services, as well as the list of the tasks to be performed, the term of the service delivery and the sum to be paid. The party United National Movementused to launch quite large scale and successful lobbyist activities during the nine years of its being the authority in Georgia. The lobby companies were paid their remuneration by National Safety Council. After the defeat in the Parliamentary elections of October, 2012 United National Movement has been carrying out its lobby campaign independently; Relevantly, they had to source the financial resources to pay to the lobbyists out of their own budget. Presently they have only two lobby companies hired, out of which they have executed an active contract with one company only: ORION STRATEGIES at this stage. United National Movement had contracts executed with both these American companies when being at the head of the country. A new contract was concluded with the lobbying comapny Fianna Strategies in 2014. For the period from April first to September of the same year National Movement had to pay the mentioned company USD 42 000. In the same document, the letter written from the company to Mikheil Matchavariani mentions the list of the services to be ensured by the company for the client. These services are as follows: getting the views, aims and position ofUnited National Movement familiarized with the Congress Members, NGO Representatives and the media; organization of the party member meetings with the American high executive officers. Another contract is concluded in September, 2015 and the sum to be paid till October 28 of the same year constitutes USD 15 000. The other company with which there is an acting up to date agreement concluded is Orion Strategies. United National Movement used to cooperate with this company since 2004 – in the years of its being in the authority when the mentioned company was paid the due sums out of the budget. The history of this cooperation counts 16v years by now. The present contract with them is valid till October 7, 2020 and the cost of their services makes up USD 250 000. The company has undertaken to ensure organization of meetings in the USA for the client, support democracy and safety in Georgia, integration with NATO and the Western institutions.