Polish voters gather for the ''March of a Million Hearts,” a pro-democratic rally in Warsaw that gathered up to 1 million participants on October 1, 2023. (Piotr Lapinski/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nations in Transit

Nations in Transit evaluated the state of democracy in the region stretching from Central Europe to Central Asia from 1996 to 2024.

About the Report

First published in 1996, Nations in Transit evaluated the state of democracy in the region stretching from Central Europe to Central Asia for nearly two decades. For all 29 countries in Nations in Transit, Freedom House—in consultation with the report authors, a panel of expert advisers, and a group of regional reviewers—provided numerical ratings in seven categories that broadly represent the institutional underpinnings of liberal democracy. These include elected state institutions (local and national governments), unelected state institutions (the judiciary and anticorruption authorities), and unelected nonstate institutions (the media and civil society). The ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing the lowest and 7 the highest level of democracy. The Democracy Score is a straight average of the seven indicators. In 2020, Freedom House introduced the Democracy Percentage, which is a translation of the Democracy Score to the 0—100 scale, with 0 representing the lowest and 100 the highest level of democracy. The detailed methodology is available here.

Nations in Transit did not rate governments per se, nor did it rate countries based on governmental intentions or legislation alone. Rather, a country’s ratings focused on the health of its institutions in the broadest sense and were determined by considering the practical effect of actions by the state as well as nongovernmental actors.

The Nations in Transit ratings, which should not be taken as absolute indicators of the situation in a given country, are valuable for making general assessments of how democratic or authoritarian a country is. They also allow for comparative analysis of reforms among the countries examined and for analysis of long-term developments in a particular country.

The Data

Freedom House contracted independent researchers from academia, journalism, and civil society for each country to draft the country reports and make the initial scoring decisions. These draft country reports and score proposals were then sent to between three and six reviewers per country per year for comments. After researchers had a chance to respond to the comments, the Nations in Transit team and its advisors met to finalize scores for each country. Where possible, scores reflect the consensus of researchers, reviewers, advisors, and Freedom House, but Freedom House had the final vote on all score changes.