Joan Hoey is the Regional Director for Europe in Economist Intelligence’s Country Analysis division. She is an expert on European political economy, with a special interest in democracy, governance, political risk, global geopolitics and east European post-communist transition. Joan is the Editor of EIU's flagship annual Democracy Index, recognised by governments, international organisations, corporates and academia as a leading measure of global democracy. Before joining the Europe team at The Economist Group in 1995, Joan worked as a journalist covering the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the wars that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.