Despite little progress in the areas of independent media and the electoral process, the Macedonia remains considered a hybrid regime in transit, according to a recent Freedom House report entitled “Nations in Transit.”

 

The report notes that democracy has declined across the region, and as stated in the report, there are fewer democracies today than at any point since the annual report was launched in 1995 – out of a total of 29 countries, 10 at the time were considered democracies, 10 hybrid regimes and 9 authoritarian regimes. And now, 25 years later, 6 countries are considered democracies (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia), 4 – semi-consolidated democracies (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia), 10 are considered hybrid regimes (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo), one country is considered a semi-consolidated authoritarian regime (Armenia) and 8 countries are considered consolidated authoritarian regimes (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan).

According to the report, Kosovo and Macedonia are the only countries in the region that have made progress compared to last year’s report (Macedonia’s progress is 1 percent), but they still belong to the category of hybrid regimes. Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina fall into the same category, while Croatia is the only country in the region to be considered a semi-consolidated democracy.