Based on the theories (of personality traits’, situational, followers’, psychological) related to the emergence of political leadership, on the basis of comparative and qualitative methods, the characteristics of political leadership have been studied in the post-Soviet era. A leader uses the situation, relies upon the followers, and, in most cases, the great leaders awarded with charisma are characterized by a whole range of psychological features, but in all cases the determining role is played by the qualities of a leader, the majority of which are inherited. In our opinion, the argument provided by researchers that regular mortals may be gifted with the traits of a leader, is not convincing in disproving “the theory of traits ” due to two reasons: first, a leader is a human being, a social creature (human is a political being and separately, as a self-sufficient entity, it is either a beast or a god – Aristotle) and naturally they possess human features; second, a leader has to be characterized by a high degree (dosage) of distinguishing attributes and, most importantly, they are the main force in the process of striving towards the governance and all the other actions subordinate to them. This judgement is concerning the great leaders distinguished in the history of humankind, the actions of whom have changed the vector of the history development, and there are no leaders with such skills and capacity on the post-Soviet political stage yet. The hypothesis of the topic to be researched is as follows: the traits of leadership in the political arena of post-Soviet countries are determined by the dominance of the subject political culture, heavy social-economic background, the specifics of a national-psychological and mental development of a given nation, foreign policy orientations. Each of the above-mentioned variables influence the process of selecting leaders in different degrees (for example: in the reality of Georgia the foreign policy orientation is a significant condition to the position of a leader in the government, because the key of country’s independence lies outside the country and the inclination towards “looking up to the foreign/a foreigner” is relevant to Georgian mentality and the mindset of electorate, while in Russia a leader is mainly characterized and inspired by the Russian geo-political interests, orthodox-messiah ideas and mainly has to support the national idea consolidating the “Great Russian chauvinism” and Russian “Sovereign Democracy”, but in all settings the determining factor is the excessiveness of the subordinate political orientations (except for the Baltic countries) in the presence of which, according to Almond and Verba’s concept of political culture, the majority of citizens expect the desirable actions from the leader – the savior of the country and the state; all of this, in the environment of poor economic development and weak institutions, consequently leads to excessive number of populist, authoritative leaders in national governments.

No abstract

In this paper, the main reasons that led in the post-Soviet period to the process of replacing the ruling classes with the counter-elite are analyzed. In the study, using the dialectical methodology, the authors identify trends and, following them in a logical chain, explain the order of procedures for political elites’ circulation. This paper also focuses on the education factor, which significantly determines the process of formation and circulation of political elites in post-Soviet Georgia. If, in the Soviet period, one of the criteria for the formation and recruitment of local elites was local education, the trend in this direction in post-Soviet Georgia has been changed significantly. Education gained in Western, EuropeanAmerican universities has been one of the defining factors in the formation and recruitment of political elites by Georgia since its independence. However, in Georgia, mainly in Tbilisi, there are educational centers, socalled “elite schools”, the vast majority of which are attended by children of new Georgians, but according to the criteria of skills, 3-4 percent of schools accept students. This is the first phase of education for junior members of local political and powerful financial groups. The second phase is the migration of graduates of these institutions to higher education institutions of Western countries to get an education. Which makes it easier for returnees to the homeland to integrate into the elite structure. In conclusion, those criteria are set out that are necessary factors for replacing the power elite with the counter-elite.

1Тбилисский государственный университет имени Иванэ Джавахишвили пр. Чавчавадзе 1, Тбилиси, Грузия, 0179 2 Российский университет дружбы народов ул. Миклухо-Маклая, 10/2, Москва, Россия, 117198 На основании сравнительного анализа в труде рассмотрена политическая деятельность лидеров Звиада Гамсахурдиа, Эдуарда Шеварнадзе, Михаила Саакашвили и Бидзины Иванишвили в переход-ный период Грузии, а также на примере их личностных качеств дан анализ роли харизматичных лидеров и их места в грузинской политике.Ключевые слова: политическая деятельность, переходный период, личностные качества, ха-ризматический лидер, грузинская политика Лидеры проявляются во всех сферах жизни общества: политике, религии, биз-несе, спорте, в организациях, в криминальных сообществах и т.д. Особенная роль возлагается на лидера в деле организации групповой деятельности, в общественной интеграции. Национальные же лидеры обеспечивают координацию и мобилизацию народа, при этом не имеет значения, утопичны или реальны конечные цели.Существует множество теорий и концепций для объяснения феномена лидер-ства, в том числе и в отдельной области психологии, изучающей психологические портреты, мотивацию и характерные особенности лидера.Английский антрополог Ф. Холтон в XIX в. сформировал «теорию свойств», согласно которой лидерами люди рождаются и обладают уже с рождения выда-ющимися качествами. Эта теория включает и концепцию «авторитарных лично-стей», «харизматических лидеров», «величайших людей» и др. К «теории свойств» приходится обращаться по причине практической сложности определения харак-теристик, присущих как лидеру, так и любому другому человеку.Также популярна теория, согласно которой главенствующая роль отводится последователям, толкающим лидера на определенные действия, а меньшая роль отводится присущим ему качествам. Последователи этой теории считают, что ли-дерству можно научиться.Объединение же этих двух теорий породило «Ситуационную теорию», соглас-но которой социальная и конкретная ситуации порождают лидера.Многообразие типологии и стилей лидерства. М. Вебер выделяет 3 типа ли-дерства: традиционное, бюрократическое и харизматическое; американские поли-тологи Д. Бербер, Э. Хейвуд и др., на примере американских же президентов, вы-деляют активно-позитивный, активно-негативный, пассивно-позитивный и пассив-но-негативный типы лидеров; используя психологические методы концепции

The article notes that the Constitution of 2018, which came into force since the inauguration of the President, establishes the model of Parliamentary governance in the country and this was the last time President was chosen through universal public elections (6 year term), from 2024 President will be chosen (for 5 years) by election board and Country will totally shift to Parliamentary form of governance. The work analyzes aggressive pre-election campaign factors: socio-economic conditions, the management team's mistakes, features of political culture, contrast of Georgian mentality and consciousness, mutual accusations of candidates in protecting Russia’s interests - the "war with compromises", pre-election promises of Salome Zurabishvili and Grigol Vashadze, Government resources used in favor of a government-supported candidate, preliminary reports published by international (according to which the legitimacy of the election was not doubted, but there were critisizing comments), new initiatives announced in inauguration speech of newly elected President (democratic values ​​and political priorities), which gives the public hope for the future.