Abstract
This chapter analyzes six personality traits of two Georgian party leaders and their impact on the overall performance of their parties. The two leaders are Shalva Natelashvili from the Georgian Labour Party (GLP), the most successful left-wing political party in the country, and Mikheil Saakashvili from the United National Movement (UNM), the main opposition force. Both have been the founders and chairpersons of their parties. However, they scored differently with regard to personality dimensions and influence on their party’s performance. Natelashvili showed no change in behavior throughout the terms, displaying a negative effect on various levels—electoral performance, party membership and intra-party cohesion. In contrast, a considerable shift in demeanor appeared in the case of Saakashvili after the termination of his presidency—inter alia related to integrity and need for power. This variation suggests the importance of holding other political posts as an additional explanatory variable.
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Silagadze, N. (2020). Different Styles, Similar Paths: Party Leadership in Georgia. In: Gherghina, S. (eds) Party Leaders in Eastern Europe. Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32025-6_6
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