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Bridging the EU-Eurasia Democracy Gap

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fheurasiaThe transformation of the formerly communist societies of Central and Eastern Europe stands as one of the most significant advances for democracy in human history, writes Arch Puddington and Zselyke Csaky, respectively Vice President for Research and Research Analyst for Nations in Transit at Freedom House.

Most of these societies are now into their third decade of democracy. Corruption remains a serious problem throughout the region, and some governments have been dysfunctional in other ways. Certain states in the Balkans are still recovering from war and dislocation in the 1990s. But the people of Central and Eastern Europe on the whole can speak freely, have access to a wide variety of media, worship as they please, join together to seek reform, and vote to replace corrupt or ineffective leaders.

The EU deserves much of the credit for the progress toward a Europe that is free and whole. It made the decision to open its doors to countries whose future political stability was questionable. It set clear standards for democratic governance, human rights, and civil liberties, and then insisted that the standards be met before formal membership was approved.

More recently, the EU has taken on a more complicated project. It has invited six Eurasian countries to sign partnership agreements that could lead to EU membership at some future date. At present, most of these countries do not appear to be promising candidates for accession. Two—Azerbaijan and Belarus—are outright dictatorships. Another, Moldova, is a fragile democracy with one of Europe’s poorest economies. Armenia has a record of mediocre governance, limited political competition, and widespread corruption. Georgia seems to be moving toward a strengthened democracy, though its durability remains open to question. Ukraine has faced growing repression since the election of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2010.

There is a substantial gap between the six Eastern Partnership countries and the formerly communist EU member states, not to mention the EU states of Western Europe. The graph below is drawn from data in Nations in Transit (NIT), Freedom House’s annual report on political reform and democratization in the former communist world. NIT assesses seven indicators: Electoral Process, Civil Society, Independent Media, National Democratic Governance, Local Democratic Governance, Judicial Framework and Independence, and Corruption. The numerical ratings range from 1, the best possible result, to 7, the worst. The Democracy Score for a given country is an average of its results on the seven categories.

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The data show that even when the worst performers are eliminated, there is still a major gulf between the new EU states on the one hand and the Eastern Partnership countries on the other.

A substantial difference in democracy standards is evident in each of the seven categories. Particularly noteworthy are the shortfalls in two categories that are critical to stable democracy: National Democratic Governance—reflecting the overall ability of an elected government to reach decisions and meet the most important political challenges—and Judicial Independence.

Unfortunately, the run-up to this week’s Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius has been dominated not by discussion of the prospects for enhanced freedom and prosperity in Eurasia, but by the Kremlin’s campaign of threats and bribery to stop the project in its tracks and ensure that the countries on Russia’s periphery tie their political and economic futures to Moscow, and not Brussels.

Read the rest at Freedom House’s Freedom At Issue Blog

The post Bridging the EU-Eurasia Democracy Gap appeared first on Democracy Digest.


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