The paper focuses on studying the liberal-democratic values in the general education of Georgia. Based on the social interaction approach of political socialization, the article assesses pupils’ and teachers’ positions towards the liberal and democratic principles and values that have been declared policy goals of Georgia since 2004. Using DAP (Democracy-Autocracy Preference), DPE (Democratic Performance Evolution), and initially tested Lib-Dem (Liberal-Democratic) scales, 297 students and 121 teachers were surveyed. Results show that teachers demonstrate more liberal-democratic positions than pupils. Also, girls tend to be less supportive of authoritarian governments and share more liberal approaches than boys. A similar trend is observed comparing students from private and public schools. The type of school correlates to teachers’ results in supporting liberal and democratic positions. However, the more liberal-democratic positions the respondents share, the more likely they believe that “Georgian” and “Liberal” are incompatible. Also, respondents who see Georgia as a democratic country and are more proud to be members of Georgian society share less liberal and democratic principles and vice versa. The study shows how liberal and democratic declared and policy ideas are supported among respondents and what it means to Georgia and its education system. Based on the results and discussion, new research questions are articulated dealing with gender, the generation gap, and the importance of the type of school that needs to be examined more carefully using the social interaction approach and qualitative methods and techniques, as well.

This article deals with the emerging far right movements in Georgia, where the growing Europeanization process is taking place. Therefore, it aims to determine how relevant the European-experienced understanding of the far right with the similar movement political positions is. The article presents the stances of the members of far right movements (Georgian March, Anti-liberals, Georgian National Unity and Edelweiss) on foreign and identity policy and different socio-ethical issues, also assessed the neo-populist manner and belief in supremacy of the law. The conclusion summarizes the major characteristics of these far right movements in comparative way.

In education policymaking, policy transfer can be seen as one of the practical tools. The cons and pros of the process are clearly manifested in post-socialist countries where the education system started to change fundamentally after regaining independence in line with increased interest from donor organizations. The article deals with the process of education policy transfer based on the case of the National Assessment and Examination Center of Georgia. The proposed orthodox framework of policy transfer and data analysis allows us to draw main conclusions to answer the research question: what makes education policy transfer successful? Besides hindering factors such as contradictory socio-cultural environment and vertical administration of the education system, there are some facilitating factors: continuous political support, motivated team that knows how to build organizational culture, communicate effectively with all stakeholders, feels the local context, and tries to establish foreign policy transfer networks. These key determinants can make education policy transfer successful. The methodological approach and conclusions of the article can be used by scholars from post-socialist education research and beyond who are interested in determining the causes and results of education policy transfer.

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Nowadays, deep cooperation between universities, research centres, and industry is seen as a stimulus for economic growth. Yet, it is still unclear how the knowledge commercialization process works in the countries with an experience of the highly centralized economy and education. Tbilisi State University is seen as the optimistic catalyst for further commercialization, mainly due to its international ties, though the issue of social science knowledge commercialization is still mostly neglected. In our research, the case of the oldest, the largest, and the most internationalized university in Georgia is analyzed. The comprehensive study aims to determine the macro and micro factors that make knowledge commercialization in social sciences successful or a failure. Results show that some university society representatives believe commercialization is mainly based on natural and exact sciences. In contrast, others claim that human development contribution is the most significant knowledge transfer that can be done.