The Most Important End-of-year List

A beacon of light shining amidst the vapid sea of the December news cycle is Freedom House's "Freedom of the World" index. The annual survey measures the political liberties afforded to citizens in nearly every country in the world (as well as prominent non-sovereign areas such as Chechnya and Tibet), using indicators such as fairness of elections, media freedom, and women's equality.

The survey is especially useful in that one can track a country's advancement towards (or decline from) democracy and individual rights given the scope of the data and its annual rankings.

This year's lowlight is Russia, which was downgraded from Partially Free to Not Free, which, according to FH's press release:

"...is the culmination of a growing trend under President Vladimir Putin to concentrate political authority, harass and intimidate the media, and politicize the country's law-enforcement system," said Freedom House Executive Director, Jennifer Windsor. "These moves mark a dangerous and disturbing drift toward authoritarianism in Russia, made more worrisome by President Putin's recent heavy-handed meddling in political developments in neighboring countries..."

Promising, however, is that areas such as Georgia and Ukraine moved towards greater political liberty on FH's scale, on account of the successful reform movements in those countries over the last year--despite attempts by Russia to install or support illiberal candidates and administrations in both former Soviet Republics.

One can only hope that over the coming years, Russians themselves begin to see the great economic and political strides made by their neighbours in Georgia and Ukraine, and begin to demand real democracy in Russia--if not through the ballot box, then by peacefully taking to the streets until the morally bankrupt Putin regime falls.