The Political Economy of the First Republic: Between Wealth Creation, Redistribution and Labour Protection
Abstract
At a very basic understanding, political economy is about the various ways of thinking and available tools that statesmen, political activists and policymakers need to deal with questions of production (wealth creation), redistribution, consumption as well as about considerations of how such processes affect societies. Fundamentally, it also aims at determining the role of the state in national economies: hands off, mediating/intervening or commanding.
Georgia's First Republic, which came to existence in a brief moment in the early twentieth century (1918-1921), was a rare 'experiment' in political and political economic terms for post-imperial space as well as within the European Continent. This was because some of its leading statesmen such Noe Zhordania and Niko Nikoladze, discussed at length in article, in their search for economic development of the nation sought to find a balancing role for the state with regard to capital and wealth creation as well as redistribution and labor protection.
This was a novelty in the post-imperial space and beyond.