TIRANA, Feb. 8 – The Economist Intelligence Unit, in an annual report published last week, listed Albania’s political system as a hybrid regime between democracy and totalitarianism, showing the country has made little to no progress in more than a decade.
Albania’s score slightly improved from last year, when it scored last in the Balkans along Bosnia at number 81 out of 167 countries polled around the world.
This year, the country scored 5.98 from last year’s 5.91, leaving Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina behind in rank, but remaining a hybrid regime.
Although almost half of the world’s countries can be considered democracies, the number of full democracies is relatively low, with only 30 making the grade, while 50 states are rated as flawed democracies. Of the remaining 87 states, 51 are authoritarian and 36 are considered to be hybrid regimes.
The study looks at five key factors to calculate the rankings in the index; electoral process and pluralism, political participation, political culture and civil rights.
Though last year’s commentary on the countries’ score was that the spread of democracy seems to have come to a halt, this year The Economist warns that “democracy continues its disturbing retreat” , as 89 out of 167 countries saw their scores drop from the year before.
