IVO: Quality of Democracy in Slovakia is not Improving
Source: SITA
The quality of democracy in Slovakia has not been improving, stated the President of the think-tank Public Affairs Institute (IVO), Grigorij Meseznikov, at Thursday's presentation of the IVO Barometer project. According to him, the development is connected to the way the main political players – the ruling coalition – applies power. The institute's analysts evaluated the quality of democracy in Slovakia in the first quarter of this year with 3.4 points, the same as in the last quarter of 2009. Mr. Meseznikov commented that even though the rating did not change, it does not mean that the situation has not deteriorated. He remarked that it is very inappropriate for a country that has been a member of the European Union for several years. With regard to ratings, the quality of democracy worsened only in one of the monitored areas, in legislation, which, however did not negatively influence the overall rating. The project confirmed persisting trends from last year, while unlike in the previous periods, no new grave cracks in the development of democracy have opened.
The objective of the IVO Barometer long-term project is to evaluate the state of democracy in Slovakia on quarterly basis in five key areas: democratic institutions and rule of law, legislation, protection and respect for human and minority rights, independent media and public service media, and foreign policy from a European integration and transatlantic point of view. The rating range is from 1.00 to 5.00, while 1.00 is the optimum state of quality of democracy according to standards and comparative criteria applied by the EU and the Council of Europe in the areas of stability of institutions, political democracy, human rights and freedoms.
