The study called "How Freedom is Won: From Civic Struggle to Durable Democracy," deals with 67 countries "where dictatorships have fallen since 1972. It draws on over 30 years of Freedom House data analyzing the state of global freedom and is the most comprehensive examination of political transitions ever conducted," reads the press release issued by Freedom House on its web site.
"In large measure, the study finds that transitions generated by nonviolent civic coalitions lead to far better results for freedom than top-down transitions initiated by elites," it added.
Croatia was one of the countries covered by the study. Freedom House says that Croatia made transition into a multiparty democracy in December 1999 after the death of the then President Franjo Tudjman.
Freedom House rated Croatia on political rights with a 2 and on civil rights with a 2, both on a scale of 1 to 7 (in which 1 is the most free).
This non-profit and nonpartisan organisation rated Croatia as a free country in 2004. In 1998 and 1999, Croatia was described as a partly free country in terms of development of political rights and civil liberties.