Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 18th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview VII. Working Group on Policy Analysis Author(s) Nana Sumbadze Tbilisi State University Tbilisi Georgia Title Policy impact on political preferences of population: Case of Georgia File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract Residence type –urban or rural is increasingly acknowledged as acting in poor countries as stratification principle. In the political discourse in Georgia support to different political actors is closely linked with the residence type. Urban population is considered to be less traditional and conservative than the rural one. It could be hypothesized that such attitude will lead to higher loyalty of rural population to the president, government and more generally to the ruling party, as well as adherence to more traditional values. The analyzes the impact of residence type on political preferences and values is based on the data of the nation wide representative survey of Georgia’s population carried out by the Institute for Policy Studies in 2008. The data was grouped by the residence type- residents of the capital Tbilisi (22.4 percent); of five principal cities; of inhabitants of small towns and villages (60.5 percent). Interest of population in politics is high, showing decrease with settlement size. 76.8 percent of Tbilisi, 66.5 percent of population of big cities and 50.7 percent of rural population closely watches political processes. The importance of participation is much more acknowledged by respondents in Tbilisi than others. 66.8 percent of Tbilisi, 56.1 percent of population of cities and 52.2 percent of rural population is convinced that the resolution of the problems facing the country is possible only with the participation of the population. But very few (19.5 percent of Tbilisi, 27.2 percent of cities’ and 24.5 percent of rural population) see any possibilities to participate. Population expresses more trust towards president and government (31.1 percent) than to opposition (7.3 percent). Government is trusted by 14.0 percent of Tbilisi inhabitants, 42.1 percent of city residents and 33.5 percent of rural population. Very high is political nihilism, especially in the capital. 50.2 percent of its inhabitants claim that does not trust any political actor. Political preferences in a considerable degree reflect estimations of effectiveness of the government. The most critical are inhabitants of the capital and the least residents of the cities.48.7 percent of city, 41.0 percent of rural and 39.1 percent of Tbilisi population thinks that the country is on the right path of development. In similar wane the estimation of respondents towards a number of issues - existence of democracy in the country, defense of human rights, equality before the law, security of private property is most positive by the residents of cities and the least by inhabitants of Tbilisi. On the other hand the importance of events associated with government actions are perceived as less important by rural population. Two, the most dramatic events of the last decade – use of force for dispersing peaceful manifestation in November 2007 and the August war with Russia are perceived as important by more Tbilisi dwellers, than of city dwellers or rural. Democracy is considered as the best form of governance by more town than rural population. While asked to choose two from presented two materialistic and two Post-materialistic values, only few choose post-materialistic values, but still more inhabitants of Tbilisi, than of cities and even less of rural population selected them. Analyzes of the survey data thus confirmed existence of more traditional attitudes of rural population to values, but did not support the notion of political preference of people in power by rural population. Instead the data unequivocally pointed at the positive estimation of the population of cities to the president and the government and their actions. Such attitude of city dwellers can be explained by the recent policy focus on the development of cities. This policy is reflected in foreign investments, creation of free economic zone, rehabilitation projects of infrastructure and buildings, transfer of some government offices from the capital to the cities, conducting the government meetings and the frequent visits of the president in regional centers. All these seems to create hope of economic improvements in city dwellers and form bases for their loyal attitude.
