In it, I noted that for 2011, in the ranking produced by the US-based NGO Freedom House, Ukraine fell back into the “Partly Free” category, having been in the “Free” category every year since 2005.
Being in the “Partly Free” category, with a score of 6 on the Freedom House system, put Ukraine equal with Moldova – still one of the two highest-ranking non-Baltic FSU countries, but suggesting Moldova was catching up.
I noted that Ukraine’s descent into the “Partly Free” category would reinforce concerns about the development of democracy and freedom of speech. The blog included a graph showing how different FSU states had done in the Freedom House rankings over the last 20 years.
This month, someone has drawn my attention to a similar exercise by The Economist magazine, entitled Democracy Index 2011, published in December. The Economist has a different methodology from Freedom House.
It groups countries into “Full democracies”; “Flawed democracies”; “Hybrid regimes”; and “Authoritarian regimes”. This index shows Ukraine as one of two countries changing category downwards from a “flawed democracy” (2010) to a “hybrid regime” (2011). Ukraine’s ranking drops from 67th out of 167 countries in 2010 to 79th in 2011.
I’m cautious about reading too much into a single index; and you can always argue about methodology. But it is noteworthy that two independent reports both show a deteriorating trend in Ukraine. I look forward to seeing how Ukraine is doing in the 2012 Freedom House rankings, due out this month.
Leigh Turner has been the British Ambassador to Ukraine since June 2008. You can read all his blog entries at blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/turnerenglish (in English) or blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/turner/ (Ukrainian)
