Freedom House: Citizens Disillusioned with Political Elites

Modest and almost insignificant democratic progress is noted by North Macedonia in the latest Freedom House report “Nations in Transition”. On the scale from the lowest score of 1 to the highest of seven, this state is rated 3.86, in contrast to the 3.82 it received in last year’s report. In more detail in the scoring, in the category of national democratic governance, the state received a score of 3.50, for the electoral process 4.50, for civil society 4.75, for independent media 3.50, for local democratic governance 4.25, for judicial framework and independence 3.25, while for corruption was rated 3.25. The report notes strong political polarization and parliamentary blockages, which hindered the adoption of legislation at the national level in the country, but also improvements in local authorities in terms of transparency, citizen participation and inter-municipal cooperation, with a positive impact on democracy.