A Slovak NGO, the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO), said that the quality of democracy in Slovakia received a grade of 3.3 from it on the scale from one to five in the second quarter of 2009. The grade is based on an IVO project called Barometer and the second quarter was worse than the first quarter of this year when the overall grade was 3.1. In previous quarters it was 2.9, 2.8 and 2.6, the organisation said at a press conference on July 6, the SITA newswire wrote.
An optimum state of democracy’s quality, as calculated by IVO, is based on comparative norms used in the EU and the European Council and the best grade is 1.00, the SITA wrote.
As in the last quarter, out of the four spheres assessed, the worst results were in the area of independent media (with a grade of 3.75, a worsening by 0.25 point when compared with Q1), followed by democratic institutions and a lawful state (3.50, worsening in 0.25 point). The sphere of human and minority rights deteriorated by 0.25 point, from 3.00 to 3.25. The best grade was in the area of legislation- it was assessed by IVO at 2.75, for the third consecutive time. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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