On October 23th, 2013, Institute for Public Affairs has published assessment of the development of quality of democracy in Slovakia for the third quarter of 2013.
Analysts from the Institute for Public Affairs in cooperation with other experts evaluated the quality development of democracy in Slovakia in the third quarter of the year 2013 by overall mark 2.9, the same mark as in the second quarter of 2013.
The particular rating has changed in the area Democratic institutions and the rule of law, where the mark is worsened by 0.25 points. However, in the area Legislation, the experts saw an improvement that shifted the grade up by 0.25 points. In other two areas, Human and minority rights, Independent media, regarding the developments in the third quarter of 2013, no such major improvement or deterioration in the quality of democracy had place, which would result in a shift in the rating.
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IVO Barometer 3. quarter 2013 - Newsletter [in Slovak, pdf]
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The IVO Barometer 3/2013 was introduced on the press conference (from the left) by Martin Bútora, Grigorij Mesežnikov and Kálmán Petőcz.
Project Opening Slovakia
Institute for Public Affairs evaluates the quality of democracy in Slovakia in the second half of 2013 within a projcect Opening Slovakia supported by the the EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014. The IVO project is intending to contribute to promoting open and transparent governance, increasing civic participation, better performance of public administration institutions, more effective exercise of human and minority rights and more professional media environment. For more information about the project and the activities please visit the project section.
IVO BAROMETER
The principal objective of the IVO Barometer, an analytical project by the Institute for Public Affairs, is to provide a foundation of basic knowledge about the actual state of affairs and development trends in the field of quality of democracy, and to put together an operative team of experts and regularly publish their assessments.
The backbone of the project is the regular evaluation of the quality of democracy in Slovakia after it became a full-fledged member of the European Union. The project’s methodology is based on systematic monitoring and analysis of the main development trends in five key areas: democratic institutions and the rule of law; legislation; projection and implementation of human and minority rights; performance of independent and public service media; and civil society. IVO Barometer in 2013 – 2014 is elaborated as a part of a project Opening Slovakia.
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IVO: Level of democracy stayed at 2.9 points in 3Q13
Source: The Slovak Spectator
The level of democracy in Slovakia remained unchanged with a mark of 2.9 in the third quarter of 2013, according to the barometer survey carried out by the Public Affairs Institute (IVO).
Marks granted by the institute range between 1 and 5, with 1 expressing an ideal state of affairs within a surveyed bracket. The quality of democracy stayed the same quarter-on-quarter in two out of the four surveyed categories including human and minority rights(3.25) and independent media(3.00). Meanwhile, the mark for democratic institutions and the rule of law fell by 0.25 points to 3.25. Conversely, the institute noted improvement in the legislation category, which went up 0.25 points q-o-q to 2.25.
“We haven’t seen any noticeable improvements in the effectiveness of the running of various supervisory mechanisms - neither in Parliament, nor as concerns appointing members to significant posts in supervisory bodies,” the IVO’s Grigorij Mesežnikov observed at a press conference on October 23. “What was once promised by the [governing] Smer party and by its top representatives with respect to granting the opposition the right to acquire adequate representation in supervisory bodies hasn't been kept.”
The expert added that an unsettling trend has been watched in parliament. “The political confrontation that we’ve witnessed has taken the form of physical conflict,” said Mesežnikov, as quoted by the TASR newswire. IVO stated in the analysis that this can be attributed mainly to the ruling Smer party.
Mesežnikov went on to note that one of the factors influencing the quality of democracy in the country that was taken into account was that the appointment of the new general prosecutor still remains surrounded by doubt as to the legitimacy of the process. Also reflected in the final mark was the recent affair concerning the purchase of SPP shares which pointed to alleged ties between the government and influential financial groups.
Source: TASR / The Slovak Spectator.
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Preview of media coverage (in Slovak)
