According to Freedom House’s “Nations in Transit 2021” report, North Macedonia’s democratic score has increased from 3.75 to 3.82, meaning the country has registered democratic progress, as opposed to the majority of the countries in the region.
However, despite democratic progress, it’s still ranked among countries with transitional or hybrid regimes. These countries are typically electoral democracies where democratic institutions are fragile, and substantial challenges to the protection of political rights and civil liberties exist.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only other country in the region that has registered progress, while Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and Bulgaria have all rolled back.
According to Freedom House, countries all over the region are turning away from democracy or find themselves trapped in cycle of setbacks and partial recoveries. In the 2021 edition of “Nations in Transit”, covering the events of 2020, a total of 18 countries suffered declines in their democracy scores; only 6 countries’ scores improved, while 5 countries experienced no net change.
The report presents North Macedonia as a positive example and a country that has experienced democratic improvement.
“In North Macedonia, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s center-left government has repaired some of the institutional damage wrought by his right-wing populist predecessor, and still has a chance to deliver the benefits of democracy,” reads the report.
A success story is especially needed in the Balkans, where democratic gains have been rolled back in most countries, it adds.
Politicians, the report shows, are norm entrepreneurs. When they berate journalists, or whip up fear by alleging that upholding rights for LGBT+ people and ethnic or religious minorities harms the majority, they reap political benefits in the short term, but help entrench antidemocratic values in the long term.
“Nations in Transit 2021” found frequent instances of politicians instrumentalizing dangerous rhetoric for political gain—such as Bulgaria’s nationalist reasoning for blocking North Macedonia’s European Union (EU) accession negotiations.
A section of the report entitled “The Antidemocratic Turn” warns that attacks on democratic institutions are spreading faster than ever in Europe and Eurasia, and coalescing into a challenge to democracy itself.
“Incumbent leaders and ruling parties are corrupting governance and spreading antidemocratic practices across the region that stretches from Central Europe to Central Asia. These actions are opportunistic, but are often cloaked in an ideological agenda. And as they become increasingly common, they are fueling a deterioration in conditions that will have global implications for the cause of human freedom,” reads the report.
Over the past decade, amid the erosion of the liberal democratic order and the rise of authoritarian powers, the idea of democracy as an aspirational end point has started to lose currency in many capitals, adds the report.
Existing institutions’ failure to address pressing societal concerns, increasing polarization, and growing inequality have fueled uncertainty and anger, and major democracies’ mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic has provided additional fodder to those interested in exploiting disillusionment with the traditional champions of democratic governance, the report stresses.
However, Freedom House underlines, by confronting autocratic behavior and standing up for democratic values, civil society, political leaders, and governments can shape the conversation.
