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SSR Index – Measuring to Advance Democratisation
curity companies, CSOs) in all examined countries. It is also very difficult to aggregate
one grade in situations when there is great discrepancy in the quality of democratic
governance among actors. For example, it is not uncommon that executive control
over the police is much more developed and transparent than executive control over
the military or intelligence agencies. There is more information on the functioning of
internal affairs units and other bodies that deal with citizens’ complaints about the
police and investigate police corruption and violations. Additionally, in most cases
decent parliamentary oversight has been exercised over the police and military but
only formally exercised over intelligence services, making the assessment of an overall
grade for parliamentary oversight difficult. These kinds of dilemmas were first resolved
by individual researchers and then discussed at joint workshops so that different
research teams would apply the same standards to their countries.
Conceptually, the grading system risks missing the context in which reform takes place
and may not adequately represent reform dynamics, including how far a security sector
has progressed in comparison to before reforms began. 233 Proposals to increase the
grading scale to reflect a greater number of potential outcomes (including non-free
societies) have been discussed. Additionally, the Index does not capture unique postconflict
dynamics present in some cases, especially the role of international actors in
Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Therefore, similar grades may be given for different
dynamics in different countries, based on different contexts.
Finally, the methodology captures well a level of democratic governance in a particular
security sector at a particular moment of time (mapping component). Moreover,
it also might indicate the weakest and strongest links in oversight and democratic
governance (monitoring or diagnosis component). It does not, however, necessarily
provide reasons for success or failure. As much of the analysis is oriented towards the
functioning of statutory institutions, it misses informal drivers or spoilers of reforms.
Based on findings from the mapping and monitoring components of the project, more
in-depth research needs to be designed to examine the dynamics of accountability in
each country that account for these more subtle influences.
14 . Conclusion
This chapter has offered a brief description of the background, ambitions, logic, limitations,
and aspirations of the methodology that has guided the research of this informal
Western Balkans research consortium. The aim of creating the Index of SSR
has been to combine qualitative and quantitative research methods in a way that
sheds light on the dynamics of SSR, identifies its ‘critical points’ and provides tools for
the longitudinal tracking of this process in countries consolidating democracy. The
233 Before beginning the measuring phase of the project, the partner CSOs published separate ‘Context
Analysis of SSR’ studies that focus on analyzing the socio-political context within which reform was
carried out in their respective countries since the fall of Communism in 1989. Links to relevant publications
are provided in the Introduction to this publication.
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