Freedom House’s Annual Survey Nations in Transit (NIT) tracks democratic developments and setbacks of 29 countries in the former Communist states of Europe and Eurasia. The 2010 report – covering events of 2009 – observes a continuing worrying regional trend with more than half of the countries backsliding in democratic reforms, or continuing on a dangerous trajectory towards authoritarian governance.

Nations in Transit 2010 is the 14th edition of Freedom House’s comprehensive, comparative study of democratic development in 29 countries from Central Europe to Eurasia. The overarching conclusion is that 2009 was a year of broad, cross-regional pressures on democratic developments: scores declined for 14 of the 29 countries. Six new EU member states, a number of which confronted rising nationalism, experienced declines, while one experienced gains. In the non-Baltic former Soviet Union, the ratings for six countries eroded, and one improved. And, in the Balkans, three countries improved and two saw their scores regress. The downward trends in national democratic governance, judicial framework and independence, electoral process and corruption noted in previous editions remained a concern in 2009. Most worrying, however, is the increased number of rating declines for independent media: 10 countries regressed in media independence in 2009, half of those in new EU member states

The report assesses democratization trends according to seven categories:
–  national democratic governance;
–  electoral process;
–  civil society;
–  independent media;
–  local democratic governance;
–  judicial framework and independence; and
–  corruption.
The ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of democratic progress.

For further information, please refer to:
https://freedomhouse.org/report/nations-transit/nations-transit-2010

Please refer for further information to the following SEE countries reports: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia.

Freedom House 2010