The First Social Democracy: A Conversation with Stephen Jones

Why did the world’s first social democratic state emerge in Georgia, and what can its brief existence tell us about democracy, socialism, and national independence? This question will be at the heart of the event, which will feature a conversation with historian and political scientist Stephen Jones about his newly published book by the Harvard University Press, The First Social Democracy: The Democratic Republic of Georgia, 1918–1921. The book explores the remarkable political experiment of independent Georgia, where a democratic socialist government sought to combine parliamentary democracy, social reform and national independence in the turbulent aftermath of the Russian Empire.

In conversation, Professor Jones will discuss how the Democratic Republic of Georgia was founded and how its leaders navigated geopolitical rivalries involving the Ottomans, the British, and the Germans, as well as territorial threats and internal ethnic conflicts. The discussion will also address the constitution of the world’s first social democratic state, its social and economic reforms, and its political pluralism. Finally, the event will reflect on why this short-lived republic remains significant for understanding Georgia’s modern political history and the broader history of democracy and socialism in the twentieth century.

About the speaker

Stephen F. Jones is a historian and political scientist and combines both disciplines in his study of modern Georgia. He served as the founding director of the Georgian Studies Program at Harvard University and later chaired its Advisory Board. He has taught at SSEES, University College Oxford, University of California (Santa Cruz), Mount Holyoke College and is currently a professor of modern Georgian History at Ilia State University in Georgia. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science and honorary doctorates from Tbilisi State University and Ilia State University.

His publications include Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883–1917 (Harvard University Press, 2005), War and Revolution in the Caucasus: Georgia Ablaze (ed., Routledge, 2010), Georgia: A Political History Since Independence (I.B. Tauris, 2012), and The Birth of Modern Georgia: The First Georgian Republic and Its Successors, 1918–2010 (ed., Routledge, 2013).