The project focused upon political change in the Russian Federal Republic and Georgia since 1991. The Russian team's approach was linked by the common concept of a civil society, even though it is still too early to talk of a structured city society in Russia. Individuals still tend to look to the state to solve problems, rather relying upon collective political action. The only significant exception is consumer organizations, which have become more active. The team looked at the relationship between the party system and the rest of society and concluded that parties remain extremely elitist organizations, with only the Communist Party of the Russian Federation still enjoying a substantial nation wide membership. Still, in the 1995 elections 65% of the deputies who were elected stood on party platforms, whereas in 1993 60% were independents. Overall five groupings of political parties were identified: supporters of the status qua, liberals, nationalists, communists and the 'centre left'. Nevertheless they concluded that lobbies are more effective in many political decisions at the moment than parties.
The Georgian team concentrated upon three themes. The first was the historical background to the re-introduction of democracy into Georgia in 1991. The second was the difficult formation of a new constitutional order in Georgia, culminating in the election of a new democratic government in l995. The third theme was the new Georgian party system, its relationship with the rest of society and especially the business world. In practice only three out of 54 parties and party alliances managed to win more than the requisite 5 per cent of the vote in the 1995 election so that they could take seats in the parliament. This is the basis for a stable party system, yet predictions of its success are still fraught because so much else of Georgian society is in flux.