Well, not completely. But Mikheil Saakashvili, the President of Georgia, did boast yesterday that the wine produced in Georgia is simply so good (thanks to his free market reforms) that he hopes the Russians continue their embargo, because to sell it on the Russian market would be a waste – the Russians, he explained, will drink just about anything.
If Saakashvili sounds like an extremist, he has good reason to. His public address, which took place at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum (co-hosted by the Institute of Politics and the Harvard Black Sea Security Program), contained clear anti-Russian overtones, and several references to the 2008 Russian invasion of South Ossetia. Nevertheless, his talk appeared – at least to me – eminently reasonable, and it re-affirmed his role as the beacon for the democratization of the post-Soviet bloc.
For those who are not entirely familiar with Saakashvili (even David Ellwood, the Dean of the Kennedy School of Government, had some trouble pronouncing his name during the introduction), a bit of context is important. As the democratically elected leader of Georgia since 2004, he has presided over the fastest-growing Eastern European economy, and implemented a series of reforms aimed at strengthening the rule of law, expanding economic freedom, and institutionalizing democracy.
While he spent most of his time expounding on Georgia’s advances during his tenure, some of the statistics he mentioned are worth repeating. Investment has accelerated – despite the downturn, Georgia’s growing about 5-7% of GDP, and was the first Eastern European country to regain its credit ranking from the World Bank after the crisis. Rule of law has vastly increased, with the public’s trust in the police force increasing from five percent in 2004 to over eighty percent today (higher than Denmark or Sweden). Public perception of corruption has fallen from around eighty percent to less than one.
These hard numbers reveal the core of Saakashvili’s contention: look at us and see what we’ve done. The most important reason why Georgia ought to serve as a model for the rest of the Eastern bloc, he claimed, was because it is still standing after Russia’s military occupation. Russia deliberately left the border crossing open with Azerbaijan so that Georgian citizens could flee the country, but virtually no one did. Likewise, his claims about economic growth were tempered with a caveat: what matters is not what he says, but what investors think – and “almost 100%” of Georgia’s unprecedented growth is investment-driven.
Saakashvili sounds like he knows what he’s doing. His talk emphasized the lynchpin of his project as social transformation and civic engagement, what many political scientists consider essential to state-building. His free-market dogma stood side-by-side with his commitment to reduce the poverty rate, which he identified as a “national security” issue (and which he claims to have cut in half).
Of course, Saakashvili only presented his side of the story. There are many who have criticized his ultra-neoliberal, pro-U.S. agenda (hopefully some of whom will engage this post in the comments section). The broader lesson from his talk is that this debate must happen and it must happen soon. For Saakashvili – and many others – there is no way back to the “chaos” of the Soviet era. There is only one way forward: modernization. The question is how it can happen. Saakashvili’s rhetoric and policies might sound extremist to our sensitive liberal ears – he advised the audience to “never surrender” – but his passion was infectious. Georgia is a radical experiment in democracy. It would be incredibly irresponsible not to hear what it has to say.
Photo credit: Radio Free Europe