Legal Policy Colloquium with Giorgi Meladze:Decline of Democracy in Georgia: Higher Education Reform as a means for Authoritarian Consolidation in Georgia

Wednesday, 11.11.2026 | 6 PM | Room C10

The lecture looks at how democracy has been eroding in Georgia in recent years, with a particular focus on how reforms to higher education have been used as a tool for consolidating authoritarian rule. Since 2024, the government has pushed through a string of laws and executive actions that have squeezed civil society, tightened its grip over independent media, and extended state control into academic institutions. International observers have flagged growing restrictions on foreign-funded NGOs, press freedom, civic participation, and basic rights more broadly – and the latest wave of university reforms has raised real alarm about whether academic freedom and institutional autonomy can survive in this climate.

The speaker argues that none of this should be read as a series of disconnected policy tweaks. Instead, it's part of a larger pattern: legal changes, administrative pressure, financial leverage, and institutional overhaul are all being deployed together to hollow out the places where independent knowledge and public debate can nurture political alternative to existing power structure.

Speaker: Giorgi Meladze is Associate Professor of Public Law at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia, and Visiting Scholar at Freie Universität Berlin (10.25 – 10.26). He studied law at Tbilisi State University and was a visiting scholar at Columbia Law School. His publications span Georgia, Europe, and the United States. He has collaborated with the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission, the U.N. Development Programme, and the U.N. Global Compact, contributing to a global National Science Foundation-funded project published by Cambridge University Press. This publication received the 2024 Lawrence S. Wrightsman Book Award from the American Psychology-Law Society.