Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom

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62 • Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom Relationship freedoms Here we measure what we broadly categorize as freedoms to have relationships with others and of the kind not covered above. Nine indicators make up this category. The first measure refers to the standard understanding of freedom of association and assembly, including the freedom to form political parties, trade unions, and to organize public demonstrations. Parental authority refers to the extent to which women have equal rights based in law and custom regarding “legal guardianship of a child during a marriage and custody rights over a child after divorce.” The next two indicators on freedom of religion are drawn from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The first measures government restrictions on religion (practices and beliefs) and the second measures nonofficial or social hostility “that effectively hinder the religious activities of the targeted individuals or groups.” This second measure probably does reduce the liberty of certain people to practice religion, but its inclusion in the index is debatable depending on what is meant by a “hostile act” according to Pew; some acts may deter people from behaving in a certain way but may be consistent with freedom of expression, for example. Note also that we’ve slightly modified the Pew index, excluding two categories that did not measure actual freedoms or would have been redundant in our own index.8 The last four indicators measure the freedom of homosexuals to establish relationships. The male-to-male relationship indicator gauges the extent to which sexual relationships between men are legal; the femaleto-female indicator gauges the same for relationships between women. The age of consent indicator measures whether such laws are equal for heterosexual and homosexual couples. Lastly, we measure the extent to which it is legal for homosexual couples to adopt children. Results and preliminary findings Table 2 gives the ratings of the personal freedom index for 2008. The table includes the economic freedom ratings and the ratings and rankings of the overall freedom index. For the ratings for all countries of all categories and measures that make up the personal freedom index, see appendix C. The resulting personal freedom index and overall freedom index looks about right in that most countries fall into the spectrum of freedom that would be generally expected. The top three jurisdictions in the freedom 8 The two Pew categories our index excludes are: a) government restrictions on religion question #1: “Does the constitution, or law that functions in the place of a constitution (basic law), specifically provide for ‘freedom of religion’ or include language used in Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights?” and b) social hostility question #4: “Were religion-related terrorist groups active in the country?” Fraser Institute ©2012 • www.fraserinstitute.org • www.freetheworld.com
Table 2: Freedom Index and Sub-Indexes An Index of Freedom in the World • 63 Personal Freedom Economic Freedom Freedom Index 1 New Zealand 9.2 8.22 8.73 2 Netherlands 9.5 7.45 8.47 3 Hong Kong 7.8 9.02 8.39 4 Australia 8.8 7.83 8.33 5 Canada 8.7 7.92 8.33 6 Ireland 9.0 7.68 8.33 7 United States of America 8.7 7.93 8.30 8 Denmark 8.9 7.71 8.30 9 Japan 9.2 7.38 8.28 10 Estonia 8.9 7.65 8.28 11 Switzerland 8.6 7.96 8.26 12 Norway 9.2 7.34 8.26 13 Finland 8.8 7.54 8.16 14 Austria 8.7 7.59 8.13 15 Luxembourg 8.7 7.53 8.12 16 Chile 8.2 7.99 8.12 17 Iceland 9.0 7.16 8.10 18 United Kingdom 8.4 7.78 8.08 19 Slovakia 8.6 7.57 8.07 20 Costa Rica 8.8 7.35 8.05 21 El Salvador 8.5 7.58 8.04 22 Uruguay 9.4 6.67 8.03 23 Spain 8.8 7.19 8.00 24 Albania 8.6 7.38 7.98 25 Portugal 8.9 7.08 7.97 26 Bahamas 8.8 7.08 7.94 27 Malta 8.8 7.06 7.94 28 Panama 8.5 7.32 7.92 29 Sweden 8.6 7.26 7.91 30 Mauritius 8.1 7.61 7.88 31 Hungary 8.4 7.39 7.87 32 Belgium 8.5 7.14 7.83 33 France 8.4 7.20 7.78 34 Czech Republic 8.7 6.88 7.78 35 Germany 8.0 7.47 7.75 36 Guatemala 8.3 7.15 7.73 37 Poland 8.6 6.88 7.73 38 Peru 8.0 7.36 7.68 39 Singapore 6.6 8.75 7.67 40 Italy 8.5 6.75 7.62 41 Lithuania 8.2 7.03 7.61 42 Bulgaria 8.0 7.18 7.60 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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Human Freedom from Pericles to Meas
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Measuring Individual Freedom Action
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Table 1: Dimensions of freedom Free
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References Measuring Individual Fre
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chapter five A Compact Statement of
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References A Compact Statement of a
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Conditions for Freedom A Few Theses
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Conditions for Freedom • 155 For
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Figure 2: Freedom’s zikkurat and
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Figure 3: Freedom’s staircase and
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Conditions for Freedom • 161 “i
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Conditions for Freedom • 163 than
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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 • 181 Once
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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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Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom

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