Liberal Democracy Index in East-Central Europe
By: Ana Laura Ferrari
Sep 22, 2020
Democracy has retreated globally since 2009. The V-Dem Democracy Report 2020 shows a growing decline in liberal democracy in all regions, from Sub-Saharan Africa to Latin American. East-Central Europe is no exception. In fact, the region is constantly in the spotlight for having emblematic cases of autocratization. Here, we will look at the development of democracy in some East-central European countries in the last decades.
The graph below shows the Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) comparison for all countries in the region between 2009 and 2019. The LDI measures the quality of elections, suffrage, freedom of expression and the media, freedom of association and civil society, checks on the executive, and the rule of law. Five countries (marked in red) have experienced a substantial decline in the LDI over the last decade: Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, and Ukraine. However, there are important differences in terms of the countries’ political trajectories.
