FREEDOM HOUSE: GEORGIA’S DEMOCRACY SCORE LOWEST IN YEARS

Georgiandaily
July 01, 2009

Georgia’s democracy score fell to its lowest in eight years, according
to a research by the U.S.-based Freedom House.

Nations in Transit 2009, an annual research, covers 29 former communist
European and Eurasian countries. Scores in the survey are based on
a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 representing the highest level of democratic
development and 7 the lowest.

An overall democracy score is an average of ratings for separate
categories, involving electoral process; civil society, independent
media, national and local governance; judiciary and corruption.

Georgia’s overall democracy score, according to this year’s survey,
is 4.93 down from 4.79 in the last year’s similar study and 4.17
in 1999-2000.

"Despite constitutional guarantees of civil and political rights,
Georgia remains a hybrid system in which a parliament loyal to the
president fails to curtail authoritarian tendencies on the part of
the executive," the report reads, when it describes situation under
the category of National Democratic Governance.

"Due to the absence of any real constraints on the president, the
authorities’ reluctance to engage in dialogue with the opposition,
and unanswered questions concerning the August war with Russia, the
rating for democratic governance worsens from 5.75 [in last year’s
report] to 6.00," it says.

Georgia’s score has also declined in electoral process category from
4.75 to 5.25 "in light of the shortcomings registered by the OSCE
during the January presidential election, and the authorities’ failure
to remedy some of those failings before the May parliamentary ballot."

Decline in scores have also been reported by the study in civil society
category from 3.5 to 3.75 saying that "the varied and vibrant civil
society that emerged during the late 1990s lost momentum in the wake
of the 2003 Rose Revolution."

Scores have remained unchanged in respect of media freedom (4.25);
local governance (5.5); judiciary (4.75) and corruption (5.00).

In respect of media freedom the study says that media outlets
"whose owners support the country’s governing powers dominate the
media landscape."

"Mayors of large cities and provincial governors are still not
popularly elected. Citizens frequently encounter difficulties in
obtaining either assistance from local authorities or information about
local initiatives that could affect them personally," the study says
about the local governance category and also adds that the authorities
continued "to ignore or dismiss complaints of discrimination expressed
by the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of southern Georgia
as unfounded."

On judiciary the report says that the Georgian authorities have
taken "few concrete steps to counter the widely held convictions
that the government, not the judiciary, determines the outcome of
criminal trials, and that the Interior Ministry is a law unto itself,
accountable to no one."

In respect of corruption it criticizes the authorities for having
waged "a selective campaign against corruption that many believe
exempts the president’s closest entourage."

In overall, the Freedom House said, Nations in Transit 2009 shows
democratic declines in nearly two-thirds of the 29 countries covered
by the study.

Freedom House also said that the ratings drawn-up in the survey reflect
the consensus of Freedom House, its academic advisers, and the authors
of the separate country reports and the opinions expressed in separate
reports are those of the author (Elizabeth Fuller Carlson in case of
Georgia report).

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress