Most of us take as a given the necessity of strong property rights protection. It is hard to imagine economies that could flourish and develop if the security of persons and property conditions are not met.

The Government of Georgia (GoG) is currently preparing a new Local Self Government Code that will introduce significant modifications to the structure of local-self-governments (LSGs) in Georgia. Currently, Georgia has 63 LSGs (excluding Tbilisi and those areas not under Georgian control). If the proposed law is approved in Parliament, it would increase the number of LSG units dramatically: according to the GoG, by 2015 there would be close to 120 LSGs, and by 2018, approximately 240 LSGs overall. At time of writing, the draft Code was still under discussion by the GoG, prior to its introduction to Parliament.

The mountain of promises to modify Georgia’s liberal labor code has recently produced a little mouse in the shape of a statement by Deputy Prime Minister Giorgi Margvelashvili who, according to GeorgiaNews.ge, “branded the new labor code project a “dream of Rosa Luxemburg”.

“Don’t rush to judgment on Georgia” was the title of a recent article by Michael Cecire in Foreign Policy (FP). Written in an apparent reaction to “Georgian Dream shows its dark side” (FP, November 29), and “Georgia’s government takes a wrong turn” (Washington Post, November 28), Cecire’s piece attempts to provide a more objective account of the situation.