Giga Mukutadze
Biography
Giga Mukutadze is a doctoral researcher at the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, in the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy. He holds an MSc in European Policies and Public Administration from KU Leuven (Belgium), as well as an MA in Conflict and Democracy Studies from Masaryk University (Czech Republic). During his MA studies, he spent a semester at the University of Marburg (Germany).
Research interests
My research interests include horizontal governance in the European Union, the role of Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) in climate and digital policy adoption and implementation, and citizen participation in local sustainable initiatives. Additionally, I am interested in decentralization, deliberative democracy in climate governance, democratic backsliding, and EU enlargement.
My recent master’s thesis, titled "Democratization in the EU Candidate Countries: Do External Incentives Make a Difference?", explored the democratization trajectories of current EU candidate countries before and after receiving candidate status. The study examined the effects of EU external incentives on the rule of law and democratic performance, drawing on the External Incentives Model (EIM).
My first master’s thesis, "The Orthodox Church and Democracy – The Case of Georgia", analyzed the influence of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) on the country's democratic consolidation, based on the analysis of the official documents of the Patriarchate.
