Montenegro and North Macedonia crossed the threshold of “flawed democracies” in this year’s Democracy Index 2021 published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, writes European Western Balkans
This Index measures the state of democracy based on the electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties. The observed countries are then classified into four categories: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime, or authoritarian regime. According to the Index, Montenegro registered improvements in the categories of functioning of government and political participation and North Macedonia recorded “modest improvements in the functioning of government”.
On a scale from 1 to 10, Serbia scored 6.36 (+0.14 points compared to 2020), followed by Albania with 6.11 (+0.03), North Macedonia with 6.03 (+0.14), and Montenegro with 6.02 (+0.25). Bosnia and Herzegovina scored 5.04 points, which is also an improvement from 2020 when it recorded 4.84.
Globally, Serbia is ranked 63rd in terms of democracy. Albania is ranked 68th, North Macedonia 73rd followed immediately by Montenegro as 74th, while Bosnia and Herzegovina shared 95th place.
The average global score in the 2021 Democracy Index fell from 5.37 in 2020 to 5.28, representing a bigger year-on-year decline than the previous year and setting another dismal record for the worst global score since the index was first produced in 2006, the publication noted.