Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom

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120 • Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom in a state prison is made unfree intentionally, but a child that has been unintentionally locked in her parents’ home is not unfree, even if the child might not be able to leave the house. As Dowding and van Hees put it: “Whatever one’s judgment about such cases, bringing in intentions underlying actions—and inactions or omissions—becomes an important element in assessing freedom, though it also makes the assessment messier than conceptions of freedom that ignore intentions” (2007: 146). The mess is partly caused because the theoretical integration of intentions results in regarding the social relationship between actors. Oppenheim (2004) maintains (by referring to theoretical ideas by MacCallum (1967)) that it is hardly possible to measure “social freedom” that is defined as a relationship between actors. Judged by specific parameters, it could be possible to specify the degree to which an actor is free in respect to another person as long as subjective assessment of the persons could be quantified. Dowding and van Hees (2007) also introduce a third dimension not listed in table 1: the distinction between value-free and value-laden conceptions of freedom. Since all existing freedom indices necessarily bring in value-based assessments, this idea will not be continued here. Empirical attempts to measure freedom With reference to the theoretical approaches, freedom has been scrutinized in different areas of human life, particularly in the economic area (economic freedom), the media (press freedom), and the law (civil liberties). There are also some new measures that capture freedom from a seldom analyzed point of view, such as religion or time. The indices exemplarily presented in table 2 fulfill, at least, the criterion that they are (potentially) applicable to every society in order to measure elements of freedom. The indices were developed, however, with different aims and applied under different empirical circumstances. The State of the World Liberty Index is the broadest of all freedom indices presented here. It provides country scores that are combined from three sources: the Fraser Institute’s economic freedom index, Freedom House’s assessments of individual freedom (civil liberties and political rights), and the sizes of governments and their taxes. As an overall measure, the State of the World Liberty Index is partly realized as an (inverted) opportunity concept in the sense of negative freedom. Given that the state is perceived as the (negative) opposite to citizens, interfering with their freedom (to spend their own money) by imposing taxes and “crowding out” their consumption opportunity in markets (indicated by the size of government), the intentions of this actor are assumed to be negative for citizens. The remaining two sub-components of the index, “economic freedom” and “individual freedom,” however, have to be evaluated differently and are discussed in greater detail below. Fraser Institute ©2012 • www.fraserinstitute.org • www.freetheworld.com
Table 2: Cross-country indices of freedom Area Index Some topics or sub-indices Global Index (2006) Economic Freedom (1970-ongoing) Economic Freedom (1995-ongoing) Civil Liberties (1972-ongoing) Freedom of media (2006-ongoing) Religious Freedom (2001) Time (ca. 2005) State of the World Liberty Index Economic Freedom of the World (The Fraser Institute) Index of Economic Freedom (Heritage Foundation) Civil Liberty Index (Freedom House) Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2008 International Religious Freedom Data Discretionary time (temporal autonomy) Measuring Individual Freedom • 121 1. Economic Freedom (Fraser) 2. Individual Freedom (civil liberties, press freedom) 3. Government Size and Tax Area 1: Size of Government: Expenditures, Taxes, and Enterprises Area 2: Legal Structures and Security of Property Rights Area 3: Access to Sound Money Area 4: Freedom to Trade Internationally Area 5: Regulation of Credit, Labor, and Business 1. Business freedom 2. Trade freedom 3. Fiscal freedom 4. Government size 5. Monetary freedom 6. Investment freedom 7. Financial freedom 8. Property rights 9. Freedom from corruption 10. Labor freedom 1. Political rights 2. Civil liberties Government Regulation of Religion Government Favoritism of Religion Social regulation of Religion www.freetheworld.com • www.fraserinstitute.org • Fraser Institute ©2012
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Towards a Worldwide Index of Human
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Contents About the co-publishers an
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Overview The quest People have been
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Overview • vii understand the dif
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References Overview • ix not incr
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Why Do We Measure Freedom? Detmar D
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Annual GDP per capita (US$) 20,000
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Human Freedom from Pericles to Meas
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An Index of Freedom in the World Ia
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An Index of Freedom in the World
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Table 2: Freedom Index and Sub-Inde
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North America Northern Europe Weste
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Page 165 and 166: Conditions for Freedom A Few Theses
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Conditions for Freedom • 171 as w
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Evolution and Freedom Paul H. Rubin
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Evolution and Freedom • 175 If ev
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Evolution and Freedom • 177 About
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Evolution and Freedom • 179 incon
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Evolution and Freedom • 183 maint
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Evolution and Freedom • 185 Secon
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References Evolution and Freedom
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Liberty in Comparative Perspective
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Liberty in Comparative Perspective:
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The Evisceration of Liberty in Cana
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References The Evisceration of Libe
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From Fighting the Drug War to Prote
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