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2 Authors: Ivan Despotović, political freedom analyst Dušan Gamser, rule of law analyst Mihailo Gajić, economic freedom analyst Freedom Barometer Europe Team freedombarometer.org Publisher: Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Regional Office FNF East and Southeast Europe Tsar Kaloyan Street No 8, Sofia 1000, Bulgaria 00 359 2 969 60 10 [email protected] esee.fnst.org Copyright © 2018 by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom All rights reserved. 3 Contents FOREWORD ................................................................................................................................................................ 5 TRENDS IN 2018 FREEDOM BAROMETER EDITION ............................................................................... 6 RANKING OF THE COUNTRIES IN 2018 FREEDOM BAROMETER .................................................13 COUNTRY SCORECARDS ....................................................................................................................................17 Albania ......................................................................................................................................................................17 Armenia ....................................................................................................................................................................23 Austria .......................................................................................................................................................................29 Azerbaijan ................................................................................................................................................................35 Belgium .....................................................................................................................................................................41 Bosnia and Herzegovina ........................................................................................................................................47 Bulgaria .....................................................................................................................................................................54 Croatia.......................................................................................................................................................................60 Czechia .....................................................................................................................................................................66 Estonia ......................................................................................................................................................................72 Georgia .....................................................................................................................................................................78 Germany ...................................................................................................................................................................84 Greece .......................................................................................................................................................................90 Hungary ....................................................................................................................................................................96 Kyrgyz Republic ................................................................................................................................................... 102 Latvia...................................................................................................................................................................... 108 Lithuania ................................................................................................................................................................ 114 Macedonia ............................................................................................................................................................. 120 Moldova ................................................................................................................................................................. 127 Montenegro........................................................................................................................................................... 133 Netherlands ........................................................................................................................................................... 139 Poland .................................................................................................................................................................... 145 Romania ................................................................................................................................................................. 151 Russian Federation .............................................................................................................................................. 157 Serbia...................................................................................................................................................................... 164 Slovak Republic .................................................................................................................................................... 171 Slovenia.................................................................................................................................................................. 177 Tajikistan ............................................................................................................................................................... 183 Turkey .................................................................................................................................................................... 189 Ukraine .................................................................................................................................................................. 195 METHODOLOGY OF FREEDOM BAROMETER: Measuring Freedom ............................................... 200 ABOUT THE AUTHORS ..................................................................................................................................... 204 4 FOREWORD Dear reader, The new edition of our Freedom Barometer 2018 covers 30 European and Central Asian countries. The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom is dedicated to promoting freedom and open societies worldwide. Current political climate imparts a widespread perception that the universalism of liberal democratic norms is under threat and in fact many of our partner organizations can attest to the fact that spreading liberal democratic norms is far more difficult than it used to be two decades ago. In this context of exacerbated confrontation between ideas and concepts relevant to the advancement and the protection of our freedoms and responsibilities, it is of tantamount importance to have good measurements and assessment tools for the debate. Thirty scrutinized countries ranging from Belgium to Tajikistan may give you a mosaic of successful approaches and failures in old and new democracies. Since 2013 Freedom Barometer shows how non-action of politics and civil society alike might confirm stagnation, might lead to the erosion of democratic standards such as in Hungary and Poland or to further alienation between the citizen and the state as in many Western European Countries. In recent times a lot of comparative studies and projects have tried to build systems of statistical indicators so that different societies can be compared to each other. These systems and their respective publications are a treasure trove for us. We do not intend to reinvent the wheel and therefore we use information, data and indicators from existing, well-respected sources. However, we recombine them in such a way that they reflect our liberal values and the views we have of desirable institutions and organizations that preserve our fundamental freedoms. We also believe that freedom can only be assessed in its entirety. And this is why we try to look at the different components of freedom: economic, social and political freedom. We are delighted to see the growth of our Freedom Barometer over the past years. We constantly review our sources and our methodology to improve our analytical instrument further. For the 2018 data set, we have also introduced improvements and changes which are each explained by our authors. I am very proud to present to you our newest edition and, as with previous issues, hope you enjoy foraging through the material of Freedom Barometer 2018. Dr Rainer Adam, December 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria Regional Director for East and Southeast Europe Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom 5 TRENDS IN 2018 FREEDOM BAROMETER EDITION A. POLITICAL FREEDOM: Going Down To put a famous thought into the framework of the Freedom Barometer 2018 Europe Edition and its Political Freedom section, it would sound – Absence of “freedom decline” is merely an existence of “positive freedom development”. Really, if someone would take a look at the political freedom developments in the countries we were following over the course of the year, they would unequivocally conclude that the biggest success in the region is actually an absence of an overall decline of