Georgian social movements and the post-Soviet Georgian state: Mobilization under a dissident nationalist discourse

This thesis explores how the combination of the Soviet Communist legacy and an ethnic nationalist discourse produced a volatile political society, unstable social movements, and an imploding state system in post-Soviet Georgia. Specifically, the dissident experience under the Soviet system nurtured organizational skills and networks that were not suited to overt social movement mobilization. The thesis also examines the mobilizing power of the ethnic nationalist discourse in the Georgian context, borrowing Kathryn Manzo's elaboration of "nationalism as religion" and introducing insights on the teleology of nationalism. These elements together highlight what I call the "messianic teleology" of ethnic nationalism. The thesis elaborates how the personalized politics and distrust engendered from the Soviet experience and the "messianic teleology" of ethnic nationalism were antithetical to the necessary acceptance of "uncertain outcomes" that characterize democratic consolidation (according to Adam Przeworski (1991)).