The FINANCIAL — Things are getting better for Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s image, according to both general confidence ratings and specific job approval. Last November, immediately after Georgians replaced Mikheil Saakashvili with a new “one-man-show,” approval ratings were strangely low. In last week’s article I suggested that this slow start in the numbers game showed that Georgians did not necessarily vote Bidzina in to office, but rather voted Misha out.
It’s a questionable tactic to guess at people’s intentions without asking them directly, especially considering the fact that the two men actually occupy different offices, but responses to questions about the new Prime Minister’s performance in specific areas gives some additional support to the “voting out” theory. Georgians were not all that impressed with the new Prime Minister’s fulfillment of his duties last November, but appreciation for his work is growing.
Georgian Opinion Research Business International has been running a regular omnibus survey over the last few years, which includes questions from a variety of clients (that we cannot share with you) as well as our own curiosities (which we certainly can share). We’ve been asking approval ratings, confidence in a wide variety of institutions, and happiness with political actions. This week I’ll compare our most recent job approval ratings to some older trend data.
Respondents were most impressed with Ivanishvili’s efforts in ensuring fair elections, which may seem strange given the fact that he hasn’t actually overseen any elections in his 9 months in office. Some of his other successes in the eyes of Georgians are his fight against corruption and protection of basic human rights, for which 57% of respondents were satisfied. On the other hand, not many people were particularly happy with moves made to address unemployment or poverty in general, and even less felt that he is doing a good job returning Georgia’s borders to their shape two decades ago.
Despite the fact that some of his efforts received relatively low approval ratings, remember the most important detail in this chart: every single rating has increased, some by 6% and some by as much as 21%. This is a very common phenomenon in public opinion. People don’t seem to weigh each quality of a public official separately, but rather they relate each particular trait to their total picture of a person. What would be more revealing is if some of his duties were seen as less fulfilled than last November, while others were seen as more. As it stands, the best conclusion we can draw is that the Georgian public is indeed growing to like this man they put into office to replace Misha.
All statistics in this article have margins of error of around 3% with 95% confidence. Visit our website at gorbi.com for more articles.
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