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COVID-19 in Georgia: State Emergency as Political Non-law and Its Impact on Pluralism

ABSTRACT The article scrutinizes COVID-19-related state of emergency which tested and hence exposed vulnerability of certain values of liberal democracy where it has been fragile. It opened a window of opportunity for governments to operate in a political non-law realm through introduction of state emergency measures. Georgia was no exception, its political space has been particularly affected by the COVID-19-related state of emergency. Hence the research is interested in why the state emergency was damaging for democracy in Georgia? The article argues that by introduction of state of emergency the Georgian Dream government ushered Georgia—a hybrid democracy with rather limited history of power-sharing and weak democratic institutions—in a “state of exception,” in a sense put forward by Carl Schmitt. This political act further flattened political diversity through limiting the space for political pluralism.