In the recent history of Georgia, the Rose Revolution of 2003 has paramount importance. Due to many reasons, this year is rightfully regarded as a moment of fracture in the history of independent Georgia. As soon as the leading force of the revolution had become the young group of pro-westerner politicians (by pro-western we indicate the high level of political legitimization coming from the western partners and the close association with them), they maintained control over the state institutions by the consolidation of power and initiation of the fundamental reforms on every level of social life. The ruling party United National Movement and its leader Mikheil Saakashvili have become architects of the ongoing radical overhaul in the society.
This total acceleration of sociopolitical processes was guided by a libertarian ideology that was engineered to cause dramatic shifts at all levels of public life, including cultural, mental, economic, and political spheres; eventually, these series of transformations were expected to be crowned by the formation of the new human type. The ambitious mission of creating a new man was imagined in a way to craft a man who would be sterile from any Soviet experiences and completely imbued with Western values.
This grand libertarian project aimed to level existing cultural and historical experiences and create a new model of society, all of which was ideologically designed by one of the prominent figures of the UNM, such as Kakha Bendukidze. As a consequence of commencing this grand political project, often referred to as ‘Singaporization,’ Georgia turned out to be a laboratory for sociopolitical and economical experimental policies. On the other hand, the cultural and sociopolitical relicts deposited in the Georgian society due to the experience of the first independent republic of Georgia and the Soviet Union have been categorically abandoned. On this ground, the Rose Revolution can be considered a watershed that has drawn a red line between the historical experience and the political regime composed with the libertarian rationale.
The paper will discuss the Rose Revolution’s importance and the subsequent Singaporization project as an ideological agenda wholly distanced from the local cultural milieu. This mega political project opposed the principles underlying the first democratic republic and its legacy in the name of “de-Sovietization.” Then I will analyze the main reasons why the grand libertarian project failed. At the end of the paper, I will explain why the Singaporization project was incompatible with the local context, meaning the cultural environment.
