Armenia has semi-consolidated authoritarian regime
Posted by lenkakoutnakova on 05/07/2009
Freedom House:05.07.2009
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Democratic decline in Central Europe and Eurasia was widespread in 2008, according to the Nations in Transit publication released by the Washington-based Freedom House. Freedom House researchers determined that democracy in 18 of 29 countries studied suffered setbacks.
Among the former Soviet states, Georgia and Ukraine were described as “hybrid regimes” with both democratic and authoritarian tendencies, and Armenia and Moldova as “semi-consolidated authoritarian regimes.”
Kyrgyzstan and Russia joined Belarus, Azerbaijan, and other Central Asian countries in a group that Freedom House calls “consolidated authoritarian states.” The report singled out “petro-state Azerbaijan,” which “recorded the most significant declines” in terms of democratic development.
The researchers determined that perceived democratic gains made in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan following the so-called Rose and Tulip revolutions in 2003 and 2005 were fully reversed by 2008.
Freedom House also criticized international monitors “that issued positive statements about elections in 2008 that were clearly flawed, such as those in Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
