FREEDOM - IN THE WORLD 2005

1 Civic Power and Electoral Politics Adrian Karatnycky Russia entered the ranks of Not Free countries in 2004 for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union, according to the findings of Freedom in the World 2005, the survey of global political rights and civil liberties published annually by Freedom House. [...] (Additionally, the territory of Kosovo declined from Partly Free to Not Free in the wake of a significant increase in ethnic violence that led to the nonparticipation of the Serbian minority in parliamentary elections.) As a result of these offsetting trends, the year ended with 54 countries rated as Partly Free, one fewer than in the previous year. [...] Nevertheless, the government continued to face a number of hurdles, the most pressing of which is an environment of pervasive insecurity through out much of the country, which has hampered the work of local and international humanitarian organizations in rebuilding Afghanistan's shattered infrastructure and institutions and the efforts of the central government to exert its authority over the pro. [...] In the absence of a legislature, input from Afghans into decision-making processes has taken the form of participation in the indirectly elected loya jirgas that have met to choose the main officeholders in the TA and, more re cently, to debate and ratify the new constitution. [...] Albanian society remains clan-based; in very general terms, Sali Berisha's DP commands the allegiance of the Gheg clans in the north, while Nano's SP has the support of the Tosk clans in the south.