Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom

Annual GDP per capita (US$)
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
Why Do We Measure Freedom? • 5
drugs, etc.) are, however, often seen as harmful—though the hypothesis
of harm is often supported with disputable empirical evidence. But are
they really that harmful? And how do those freedoms relate to economic
freedom? What do they contribute to society? We can only know the
answers if we have empirical evidence.
There is one problem here and it is also the basis for our attempt to
develop a genuine freedom index: a comprehensive freedom index does
not yet exist. What can we expect from such an effort? We cannot yet
know, but at least there are individual indices that already allow a certain
rough overview.
A better insight is supplied by the Cingranelli-Richards Human Rights
Dataset (CIRI) from the American Binghamton University. This index
lists the various official human rights acknowledged by the international
community and has a rating scale. The rights are broken up into various
categories (fairness in judicial systems, democratic rights, etc.). For our
purposes, the “Physical Integrity Index” is of particular interest as it comprises
only human rights abuses that violate the most basic liberties, e.g.,
torture, detention as a political prisoner, arrest without legal process, or
the “disappearing” of individuals.
Figure 1 shows the CIRI-Dataset on “physical integrity” (7 to 8 in
the rating points equals a good human rights situation, 0-2 points equals
a bad situation correlated with GDP per capita. The findings are clear:
Once the most basic freedoms are realized, people also derive an economic
advantage. Even beyond the fact that freedom is also an insuperable
blessing, free human beings are better off!
Figure 1: Human rights and economic performance
18,945
7 to 8
6,057
5 to 6
2,899
3 to 4
1,647
0 to 2
Rating points on the Cingranelli-Richards human rights dataset
(where 8 is high and 0 is low)
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