Democracy in the World 2007
Opposition Protest, Matenadaran, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2003
RFE/RL reports that the Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked Armenia 110th out of 167 countries worldwide in terms of democracy. Given flawed elections in 2003 that failed to meet international standards and parliamentary elections scheduled for next May, the ranking comes at a particularly poignant time.
In particular, Armenia is graded low in terms of its electoral process and pluralism — only 4.33 — the same index as for Uzbekistan, Kenya or Singapore. Armenia also has a low score in terms of functioning of government — 3.13 out of possible 10. It has nearly the same score in terms of political culture. The only index where Armenia is graded relatively high is the level of civil liberties. It turns out that by this index Armenia’s situation is much better than that in neighboring Turkey or, for example, in Russia.
Although Armenia did far better than Azerbaijan and Iran, which are already considered authoritarian regimes, the EIU somewhat ominously highlights concerns that many of us are well aware of on the ground. That is, next year’s vote will determine the future of this country, and whether it succeeds or fails as a State.
The Economist Intelligence Unit decided to come up with a 2007 watch list. In the negative watch where Armenia is included along with seven other nations, the Economist’s estimation on Armenia is: “parliamentary elections in May 2007 could be highly flawed, tipping the country into an outright authoritarian regime.”
For anyone interested, Bloomberg reports that according to the rankings, Sweden is the most democratic country in the world at present. The U.S. is at 17th position and my own U.K. is at 23rd. Not surprisingly, North Korea is at the bottom of the list at 167th. Armenia’s other neighbours, Turkey and Georgia, are at 88th and 104th place, respectively.
The full list is available in PDF format here.
Opposition Protest, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2003
