Georgia’s democracy stable
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, April 5
A United States (US) based non-governmental organization, Freedom House, released its annual report on April 4, in which it says that the democracy score of Georgia has remained unchanged.
The report 'Nations in Transit 2017- The False Promise of Populism', analyzes the development of democracy in 29 countries of Central Europe and Eurasia.
It the ratings, Georgia has a total 4.61 points out of 7, with 1 representing the highest level of democratic progress and 7 the lowest.
The Freedom House report classifies the countries according to certain parameters. Georgia scored as follows:
Election process - 4.50
Civil society - 3.75
Independent media - 4.00
National democratic governance - 5.50
Local democratic governance - 5.25
Judicial system and its independence - 4.75
Corruption - 4.50
In general, the countries are classified according to the following categories: Consolidated Democracy, Semi-Consolidated Democracy, Transitional Government or Hybrid Regime, Semi-Consolidated Authoritarian Regime and Consolidated Authoritarian Regime.
Georgia was put in the category of 'transitional governments' or 'Hybrid Regime'.
In the 2017 report, Freedom House says that more than half of the 29 countries had declines in their Democracy Scores; a total of 18 countries’ scores dropped.
“This is the second biggest decline in the survey’s history, almost as large as the drop following the 2008 global financial crisis. For the first time since 1995, there are now more Consolidated Authoritarian Regimes than Consolidated Democracies,” the report reads.
Freedom House annually publishes its reports, which cover the 29 countries of the former socialist bloc and reviews the current political situations as well as the development of democracy and civil rights.
