One-and-a-Half Cheers for Georgian Democracy

Mikheil Saakashvili was hailed, wrongly, as a beacon of democracy when he became president of Georgia a decade ago. It is only now, after Sunday’s of a successor completed the country’s first peaceful transfer of power via the ballot box, that he deserves some of the praise.

Today’s favorite Georgian Democrat is billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose party won power Sunday and who has promised to create a “perfect European democracy.” Yet this adulation, like Saakashvili’s a decade ago, is premature.