Non-partisan President, Democratic Representation and Impact on Executive Decision-making – The Case of Georgia

Georgia is a semi-presidential country since 2004. President has weak constitutional powers since 2010 constitutional amendments when the presidential powers were considerably restricted. President is head of state but does not have significant formal powers, is not an active player in formation of government and exercise of executive power. At the same time, current Georgian president is non-partisan. Formally the president would be a figurehead, but in some cases he acts as an independent non-partisan actor in policy making process. Since presidential election president is actively opposite to the ruling coalition, uses formal constitutional powers of head of state (veto power, constitutional claim, some appointment powers, etc.) and informal tools to balance executive power and parliamentary majority which has three fourth of super-majority in the parliament. Georgia has a weak political party system and strong single party majority is a common for the country since adoption of constitution in 1995. The mixed electoral system does not ensure a broad political representation of political groups in the parliament and sometimes non-partisan president could be considered as a counterbalance of party politics. Non-partisan president who officially declares that he is an independent, the president of all citizens, all political groups, has a support from some part of society, operates in a non-partisan manner for balancing of executive power and parliamentary majority. In this paper we analyze a Georgian experience of non-partisan president as an actor since 2013 presidential election and examine his impact on executive decision-making process, balance of political power and promoting of representative democracy.