How are democracy and market reforms faring in East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union? Is civil society expanding or shrinking? Are the media free or fettered by official constraints? To what degree are nations governed by the rule of law? Are human rights respected? Do taxation and trade policies, property rights reforms, banking laws, privatization, and macroeconomic policies encourage or encumber private sector development and economic growth?, In Nations in Transit 2001, Freedom House asked leading regional specialists and in-house experts to answer a checklist of more than 70 indicators for 27 post-Communist countries in ten key areas: political process; civil society; independent media; governance and public administration; constitutional, legislative and judicial framework; corruption; privatization; macroeconomic policy; microeconomic policy; and social sector indicators. The survey, organized in a new essay format, was reviewed by an oversight board of leading U.S. scholars and by experts from Central and Eastern and the former Soviet Union., The results are incisive, authoritative, and comprehensive country-by-country reports that assess the progress of East Central European and former Soviet countries in ridding themselves of repressive political systems and inefficient statist economies. As an added dimension, Freedom House-which for nearly 25 years has rated global political rights and civil liberties in its benchmark Freedom in the World surveys-has developed a rating system that allows for a comparative analysis of democratic and market reforms in the countries covered by the survey., Nations in Transit 2001 is an invaluable resource and reference tool for governmental and nongovernmental institutions, schools and universities, and anyone else interested in better understanding the political, economic, and legal structures and institutions that constitute the infrastructure on which the transition to open societies and markets depends.
