Panel Proposal. Navigating Europeanization Under Autocratization: Lessons from Georgia

Abstract

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Georgia was granted EU candidate status - a long-sought “carrot” that has historically proven to be an effective tool for incentivizing political reform and democratization. Contrary to expectations, however, candidate status has not led to democratic reforms or brought Georgia closer to the European Union. Instead, the subsequent period has been marked by intensified anti-Western rhetoric, increasingly repressive legislation, and pronounced democratic backsliding. According to V-Dem, Georgia has experienced the fastest slide toward autocratization since independence and currently holds more political prisoners per capita than Russia. In the initial phase, the EU oscillated between supporting and legitimizing the Georgian government for geopolitical and security reasons and upholding its democratic norms and priorities. As autocratization accelerated, however, the EU increasingly relied on negative conditionality - suspending high-level political meetings with the ruling Georgian Dream party, cancelling financial assistance, and terminating visa-free travel for holders of diplomatic passports. Recent developments in EU–Georgia relations raise critical questions about the scope and limits of the EU’s transformative power in an enlargement context increasingly shaped by the “third wave of autocratization.” This panel seeks to bring together theoretically informed and empirically grounded contributions examining Georgia’s trajectory within the EU enlargement framework. We particularly welcome papers that address, but are not limited to, the following questions: • How does the Georgian case inform, challenge, or refine existing theories of EU enlargement and Europeanization? • What impact - if any - have the EU’s positive and negative conditionality had on the behavior of the Georgian Dream government, pro-democratic actors, and Georgian citizens? • How has the enlargement wave, often characterized as “geopolitical,” affected the EU’s capacity to promote democratization through its enlargement policy? • How have illiberal member actors within the EU (i.e. Hungary) affected EU’s enlargement policy? • Is there a discernible relationship between Europeanization (or de-Europeanization) and autocratization in Georgia?

Title	Details
Georgia's Path to Europe: Challenges and Obstacles	View Paper Details
When External Incentives Fail: Georgia’s De-Europeanization and the Impact of Political Will	View Paper Details
Interpreting Georgia’s Recent Foreign Policy Shift: Global Changes, Domestic Elites, and Public Opinion	View Paper Details
The ‘Golden Carrot’ as a Sticking Point: Destructive Dissensus and the Limits of EU Conditionality in Georgia	View Paper Details
The Geometry of In-Betweenness: EU Engagement Without Recognition in the De Facto States of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria	View Paper Details