no proper answer on how to contain this tendency.Freedom can hardly flourish under such conditions,and the prospect of prolonged wars will make a liberalrevival less probable. As Tocqueville said in 1835:“All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democraticnation ought to know that war is the surestand shortest means to accomplish it.”■■Lastly, in recent years China and some minor “economictigers” such as Vietnam and Arab monarchiessuch as Bahrain have, at least in public perception,provided us with a new model for economic growth.A new political mythology holds that only strictly organizedauthoritarian regimes can create strategiesfor growth and wealth, while pluralistic democraciescannot agree on such a strategy. This myth is ratherthe product of a very selective perception of the truesuccesses or failures of autocracies or democracies.While there may be a few successful authoritarianregimes, these are certainly exceptions to the rule.The vast majority of illiberal regimes preside overmisery, squalor, and corruption.This is why it is so important to get things right. Hardfacts must counter the perception that freedom is somehowfailing to achieve the goal of a better society whileserfdom succeeds.That is where our new Human Freedom Index sets in.It provides the following:■■Information on the state of freedom in the world.Freedom often gets lost slice by slice and is not perceivedas such. The Index can improve our understandingof the hidden processes of de-liberalization.■■Information about the positive effects of freedom forthe individual and society. This allows us a comparativeanalysis of the relationship of freedom and other desirablesocial indicators such as democracy and prosperity.Here is the reason we have focused so narrowly on personalfreedom as the absence of coercion. Only this allowsus to relate freedom to some of its preconditions.We will be able, for instance, to counter the argumentthat some freedoms can be safely put into the hands ofdictatorial regimes. Also, we can examine some cognitivedissonances over the relationship between variousfreedoms, such as the question of whether personaland civil liberties are generally compatible.Thus the Human Freedom Index may help us tounderstand some of the complexities of freedom in thisworld. It is an intellectual challenge we must confrontso that freedom will prevail. And it is part of a process oflearning how to preserve our freedom. Again, Tocquevillegot it right when he wrote: “Nothing is more wonderfulthan the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learnhow to use than freedom.”—Detmar Doering, Liberales Institut
THE HUMAN FREEDOM INDEX:A GLOBAL MEASUREMENT OF PERSONAL, CIVIL, ANDECONOMIC FREEDOMBy Ian Vásquez and Tanja PorčnikEXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe index published here presents a broadmeasure of human freedom, understoodas the absence of coercive constraint. Ituses 76 distinct indicators of personal andeconomic freedom in the following areas:■■Rule of Law■■Security and Safety■■Movement■■Religion■■Association, Assembly, and Civil Society■■Expression■■Relationships■■Size of Government■■Legal System and Property Rights■■Access to Sound Money■■Freedom to Trade Internationally■■Regulation of Credit, Labor, and BusinessThe Human Freedom Index (HFI) is the most comprehensivefreedom index so far created for a globally meaningfulset of countries. The HFI covers 152 countries for 2012,the most recent year for which sufficient data is available.The index ranks countries beginning in 2008, the earliestyear for which a robust enough index could be produced.This preliminary report will be updated (using data for 2013)and subsequently presented and updated on a yearly basis.On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 represents more freedom,the nonweighted average rating for 152 countries in2012 was 6.96. The level of global freedom stayed aboutthe same compared to 2008, but almost all countriesexperienced changes in their ratings, with about half ofthose increasing their ratings and half decreasing.The top 10 jurisdictions in order were Hong Kong,Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Canada,Top 10 Freest Countries1. Hong Kong 6. Canada2. Switzerland 7. Australia3. Finland 8. Ireland4. Denmark 9. United Kingdom5. New Zealand 10. SwedenAustralia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. TheUnited States is ranked in 20th place. Other countries rankas follows: Germany (12), Chile (18), Japan (28), France (33),Singapore (43), South Africa (70), India (75), Brazil (82),Russia (111), China (132), Nigeria (139), Saudi Arabia (141),Venezuela (144), Zimbabwe (149), and Iran (152).Out of 17 regions, the highest levels of freedom are inNorthern Europe, North America (Canada and the UnitedStates), and Western Europe. The lowest levels are in theMiddle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, andSouth Asia. Women’s freedoms, as measured by five relevantindicators in the index, are most protected in Europeand North America and least protected in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa.Countries in the top quartile of freedom enjoy a significantlyhigher per capita income ($30,006) than thosein other quartiles; the per capita income in the least-freequartile is $2,615. The HFI finds a strong correlationbetween human freedom and democracy. Hong Kong isan outlier in this regard.The findings in the HFI suggest that freedom playsan important role in human well-being, and they offeropportunities for further research into the complex waysin which freedom influences, and can be influenced by,political regimes, economic development, and the wholerange of indicators of human well-being.Ian Vásquez is director of the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at the Cato Institute. Tanja Porčnik is president of the Visio Institute, a thinktank based in Slovenia, and an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute.
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