Georgia on Their Minds: The Impact of War and Financial Crisis on Georgian Confidence in Social and Governmental Institutions
Allan L. McCutcheon
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A. Lynn Phillips
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Davit Tsabutashvili
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A violent, controversial five-day conflict between Georgia and Russia in August 2008 (the South Ossetia War) was quickly followed by a global financial crisis. These events both dramatically impacted the Georgian people, and provided a unique opportunity to assess the impact of both war and an economic downturn on a society's confidence in its social and governmental institutions. This paper uses data from the Gallup World Poll a multinational probability-based survey collected before and after the South Ossetia War in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Taking into account factors such as internet access and urbanicity, this paper investigates Georgian confidence in government, the military, financial institutions, and religion over time, controlling for respondents' perceptions of local economic conditions. Significant changes in governmental and non-governmental confidence over time were found. This analysis partially supports Lipset and Schneider's (1983) theory of correlated confidence in institutions, and shows separate impacts of the financial crisis and the South Ossetia War on confidence in Georgian institutions.
