Georgia ranks in Europe’s top three for long-term de-oligarchisation progress since 2012

The European Anti-Corruption Research Center - European Center for Anti-Corruption and State-Building Studies - has published a comprehensive new report analysing the causes and trends of corruption risks across Europe. The study, commissioned by the European Union under the European Commission’s Research and Innovation Program, covers all 41 EU member and candidate countries.

Among its wide range of topics, the report provides an in-depth examination of oligarchic tendencies in European states, including Georgia.

According to the researchers, Georgia ranks below countries such as Switzerland, Cyprus, and Hungary in terms of oligarchic risk factors.

However, despite the report’s acknowledgement that the wealthiest Georgian individual is a supporter of the ruling party, the multi-factor analysis finds that Georgia shows some of the strongest long-term improvements in de-oligarchisation in Europe - placing the country in the top three performers.

To assess long-term trends in oligarchisation and de-oligarchisation, two EU-funded indicators were developed: a baseline indicator and a corrected indicator.

The baseline indicator measures changes over a 10-year period since 2012, specifically assessing how the share of national wealth controlled by the richest 1% has evolved.

Based on this indicator, Georgia ranks third in Europe, following Ireland and the Netherlands, in long-term improvement in de-oligarchisation. The report notes that, over the past decade, only 15 of the 41 examined countries registered improvement, while the rest experienced deepening oligarchisation.

Moreover, the baseline indicator worsened in 20 EU and Schengen countries, including France, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Estonia, Latvia, Czechia, Poland, Malta, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece.

In addition to the baseline index, researchers developed a corrected indicator using deeper multi-factor analysis. This index evaluates long-term trends in wealth inequality, weighted through a specialised formula against changes in societal economic well-being from 2013 to 2023.

The results for Georgia are striking: according to the corrected indicator, Georgia ranks second in all of Europe, surpassed only by Ireland, in terms of 10-year improvement in de-oligarchisation. The weighted indicator worsened in 17 out of the 41 countries studied.

The extensive report on corruption risks and trends across Europe was prepared with the involvement of the Institute for European Analysis and Policy under the EU-commissioned project Bridging the Evidence, Regulation, and Impact Gap in Anti-Corruption Policy.