Among 29 post-communist nations, Estonia ranks first in democratic development in an index compiled by Freedom House, Estonian World writes.
Estonia is followed in the index by Slovenia, Latvia and the Czech Republic. Lithuania ranks fifth, Poland sixth and Slovakia seventh.
The countries in the index, called “Nations in Transit”, are rated on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of democratic progress. Estonia scored 1.93 in democratic development; in comparison, the worst nations in the index – Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan – both scored 6.93.
Freedom House notes that Estonia has long been considered to have a low level of corruption, outperforming in various indices even among some Western European countries.
