Analysts from the Institute for Public Affairs in cooperation with renowned experts from other research institutions assessed the development of the quality of democracy in Slovakia in the first quarter of 2010. The five evaluated areas included: democratic institutions and law state; legislation; protection and respect of human and minority rights; public media; and foreign policy (its transatlantic and European integration aspects). Each of these areas, except for the foreign policy, was graded on a 5.00 scale (with a value of 1.00 representing the optimal quality of democracy) according to the standards of the EU and the criteria used by the Council of Europe.

The overall grade of 3.4 for the quality of democracy in the first quarter of 2010 was the same result as in the last quarter of 2009. This indicates that the negative trends observed in the previous period are still persisting.