The American Freedom House organization included Armenia in the list of the
countries with semi-consolidated authoritarian Regime. According to this
organization, Armenia's rating is 5.14 scores. Tomas Melia, deputy executive
director of the organization, stated about this, when representing "Nations in
Transit 2006" report in Yerevan, today.



He said that as compared with 2005, the Armenia experienced insignificant Growth
of democracy. Armenia's indicator for democracy was 5.18, last year. It's worth
mentioning that the Freedom House evaluates the countries by 7 point scale. The
higher is the score the lowest is democracy development in a given country. Mr.
Melia stated that the given growth was fixed thanks to the independence level of
the courts, which rating is 5 scores. The rest of the indicators, including the
electoral processes, independent Media, corruption, civil society, governance
didn't change. According to the report, the tension between the government and
the opposition remained a defining feature of Armenia's political scene in 2005.
Debates over amendments to the Constitution, aimed at balancing the distribution
of power more evenly, dominated political discussion throughout the year. The
amendments were approved in a nationwide referendum in 2005, although the local
observers and the opposition questioned official data reporting high turnout.
The prosecution of officials for corruption remained rare. Fewer assaults on
journalists were reported. The concentration of power in presidency, the lack of
independent civil service have fostered weak governance and widespread
corruption. "This has been exacerbated by the close links between the country's
political and business elite, which have impeded the development of a more
transparent political system," the report said. While the unresolved Nagorno
Karabakh conflict remains a potential source of instability in the region and
has deterred foreign investors and hampered trade diversification. However, the
country's progress in microeconomic stabilization has been relatively
successful. It's worth mentioning that the situation with democratic
developments is much worse in Azerbaijan which received 5,93 scores. While
Georgia's rating for democracy is 4,86.

Full text of the report:

FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2006