Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom

42 • Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom
in China; will market reforms ultimately lead to other freedoms in China,
as they did in South Korea and Taiwan, though with a considerable lag?
Measurements matter and may even affect policy decisions. The US
democracy push by President George Bush following 9/11 seemed to
mix up the ideas of freedom and democracy, and failed to understand
that while freedom can and should be advanced in virtually any set of
conditions, democracy is unlikely to be stable or even desirable until the
appropriate set of institutions are in place. These include not just building
economic freedom, as noted above with references, but also building
other freedoms. Only when these are in place at an acceptable level
can democracy thrive (see also Zakaria, 2003; and Inglehart and Welzel,
2009). It can be unhelpful if a key index confuses the issues, depriving
policymakers of appropriate information on sequencing and results
among other matters.
Charles Humana
Charles Humana produced editions of his World Human Rights Guide
in 1983, 1986, and 1992.24 A version of the report was also included in
the United Nations Human Development Report for 1991. This index, like
Freedom House’s, is troubled by subjective judgment. It also excludes
economic freedom. Finally, its 40 variables contain a mix of various sorts
of freedom, such as free legal aid, freedom from execution or even corporal
punishment, and differing variables on democracy.
The discussion of the index in the UN development report, not apparently
written by Humana, though surely he approved the text, has a very
muddy idea of freedom; it contains an element of negative freedom but it
is mostly about “claim-freedom.” It goes on to say, “These are freedoms to
do something—to take part in the community’s life, to organize opposition
parties or trade union groups, or go about without being ‘ashamed
to appear in Publick’, as Adam Smith expressed it some 200 years ago”
(United Nations, 1991: 18-19). This appears to be a reference to a quote
on customs and needs from the Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith, the
United Nations to the contrary, did not define a freedom as the “ability
to appear in socially acceptable clothes”—a “claim” freedom and perhaps
an enhancement of freedom in Rawls’ sense, but not a freedom itself.
The Humana index was discontinued after 1992 and was not particularly
useful in any event for the reasons discussed above: subjective
judgments and a muddy definition that conflates “claim freedom” with
negative freedoms.
24 It is also often referred to as a “freedom index,” another example of the common confusion
of the ideas of rights and freedoms. For example: “It is a human freedom index” (United
Nations, 1991: 19, italics in the original).
Fraser Institute ©2012 • www.fraserinstitute.org • www.freetheworld.com