Albania has a hybrid regime and no improvement toward democracy recorded during 2018, according to the Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The Democracy Index looks at the state of democracy in 165 countries and two territories. It uses five categories to asses democracy: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Countries are classified under one of the four types of regime: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian regime.
Albania ranks 76th worldwide, with an overall index score of 5.98 points out of 10. It gets a 4.71 score in the functioning of government, which is the lowest category for the country. The highest score for Albania is 7.65 in the civil rights category. Further on, it scores 7 in electoral process and pluralism, 5.56 in political participation, and 5 in political culture.
This year’s EIU Democracy Index shows the exact same score of 5.98 points for Albania as last year. Similarly, in the last three years the country had the lowest score in the functioning of government.
Albania’s classification as a hybrid regime is due to the lack of a functioning government, voting irregularities, high levels of corruption, weak rule of law, and lack of an independent justice system.
In the case of Albania, the report also underlines the lack of cooperation between the main political parties which has brought to a stagnation of democracy.
Norway finds itself at the very top of the index once again, followed by Island, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark. Not surprisingly, North Korea comes out at the bottom of the democracy index with a 1.08 score out of 10.
A notable breakthrough is Costa Rica’s raising from the flawed democracy category into joining the top 20 countries with full democracy – from 23rd place to 20th.
The report found women’s political participation to be the most striking advance for democracy worldwide throughout 2018.
