ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT RANKS ARMENIA 110th BY ITS DEGREE OF DEMOCRACY
By Gevorg Stamboltsian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 22 2006

A new Democracy Index of the World in 2007 published by the British
Economist’s Intelligence Unit ranks Armenia 110th among 167 nations
around the globe according to its degree of democracy.

According to British analysts, Armenia is among the states with
so-called hybrid regimes along with Georgia, Russia and Turkey.

Characteristically, this regime type involves elements of both
democracy and authoritarianism.

The Economist reviews a number of indexes, grading nations on a
10-point scale.

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.

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."

Armenia’s neighbor Azerbaijan is on the Economist list of authoritarian
regimes, ranking 129th.

According to British experts, more than half of the world’s population
lives in a democracy of some sort, although only 13 percent reside
in full democracies. According to the Economist, 55 states have
authoritarian regimes today.