V-Dem Institute: Democratic Traits Drastically Decline in Serbia

Ana Luhrman (YouTube screenshot)

V-Dem Institute Deputy Director Anna Luhrmann has said that “the indexes of liberal democracy,” which the institute has used to assess democracy, have drastically declined in Serbia.

“In 2009, the liberal democracy index was 0.53, while it dropped to 0.25 last year,” Luhrmann has told the Sept. 29 issue of Belgrade daily Danas, explaining that Serbia has been included in the group of countries where autocratization has surged.

Based on the regime type, the Institute, based at the University of Gothenburg, has classified Serbia as an “electoral autocracy,” ranking 139th of 179 countries covered, the lowest in the Western Balkans.

According to Luhrmann, Serbia’s low score is “mainly due to media censorship, the government’s attempt to influence the work of the media,” but also “a reduced space for the work of civil societies and academic institutions,” as well as “the concern over the quality of the election system.”

In the region, Slovenia ranks the first, followed by Croatia. Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Kosovo, the latter being treated as a special country, have been sorted by regime type as “electoral democracies,” while only “electoral autocracies” are Serbia and Montenegro, according to Danas.