Macedonia: the authoritarian challenge to Europe

Nikola Gruevski. Demotix/Toni Arsovski. All rights reserved.Based on data from Freedom House and other relevant international sources, authoritative studies such as The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe co-authored by Sten Berglund, Macedonia is placed in the group of countries in Eastern and Central Europe with stable hybrid regimes since the fall of communism to this day.

What is different from the year of publication of this study to date is that Macedonia has strengthened its position of a hybrid regime and has leaned toward an open autocratic totalitarianism. According to “Freedom House,” Macedonia is a partly free country sliding toward “not free”, placed in the 120th position with regard to the freedom of the press in 2013. According to Reporters Without Borders, Macedonia today is at the alarming 136th place in the freedom of the press.

What is at stake in the Eastern European Hybrid Regimes?

Hybrid regimes are usually defined as “competitive and electoral authoritarianism.” Seen from the formal standpoint and as evaluated on the electoral day itself, including the process of counting and eventual recounting, competitive totalitarianism is marked by elections which are legal, democratic and fair. By “formally fair elections” we refer to the fact that there is no electoral fraud in the technical sense of the word, falsification and stilling of ballots.