P R E L I M I N A R Y R E P O R T

12“Governmentsthat restrictpeople’smovementgreatly limitthe scopeof overallliberty.”suspects humanely in custody, provide the accusedfull access to evidence, and the like. Thethird indicator refers to such violations as governmentswiretapping private communicationswithout judicial authorization.The second component [1Aii] rates civiljustice on such issues as whether it is free ofdiscrimination, corruption, and impropergovernment influence. It also measures theextent to which alternative dispute resolutionmechanisms are accessible, impartial, and effective.The third component [1Aiii] measuresthe criminal justice system on such issues as itsimpartiality, its level of corruption, and the degreeto which improper government influenceis present.By including the rule-of-law category, theindex more fully captures the extent to whichpeople are exposed to abuse by the authoritiesand is therefore consistent with measuringwhether and by how much one is “subject toanother man’s will,” 17 to use Hayek’s expression.The indicators we use not only rate thedegree to which the rule of law may be undermined;they are also measures of negativerights. Like safety and security, explained below,the rule of law concept included here significantlyexpands the scope of freedom bylimiting coercion from a diversity of potentialsources, including the most powerful entitiesor individuals in society, thus encouraging otherfreedoms to flourish and meriting the relativelygreater weight we give it in the index.Security and SafetyThe rights to life and safety from physicalaggression have long been recognized as fundamentalto liberty. Violence of any kind, exceptin self-defense or in the administration of justice,reduces personal freedom and, in the caseof violence that results in death, eliminates italtogether. In societies with low levels of personalsafety and physical security from harm, itis difficult to exercise other freedoms, or evento survive. Like the rule of law, security andsafety are thus important in safeguarding overallfreedom. (Indeed, the provision of domesticand national security is a service that mostclassical liberals consider a proper function ofgovernment.) Unlike the rule of law category,which concerns rules that seek to reduce coercion,the security and safety category measuresactual crimes committed. It attempts to measurethe degree to which people who have notviolated the equal rights of others are physicallyassaulted, kidnapped, killed, or their physicalintegrity or safety are otherwise violated.Because security is necessary to fully exercisethe whole array of freedoms, we give this categoryequal weight to the rule of law category,and both together are weighed equally with therest of the personal freedom index.Whether perpetrated by ordinary criminals,governments, organized gangs, politicalgroups, or individuals following tradition,crime and physical transgressions reduce personalfreedom in any society. The first component[1Bi] measures the homicide rate. Herewe ignore optimal-level-of-crime considerationsor, as with the rule-of-law category, anyaccount of the use of public resources to providea public good intended to enhance freedom,but that by its nature (taxation) representsa reduction in freedom. 18The second component [1Bii] measuresdisappearances, conflict, and terrorism. It ismade up of a number of variables. The firstmeasures politically motivated disappearances.The following two variables—violent conflictsand internally organized conflicts—measurethe extent to which war or armed conflictwith internal or external aggressors impingeson personal freedom in observed countries.The violent conflicts variable reflects battlerelateddeaths per capita. For the level of internallyorganized conflict, we use a “qualitativeassessment of the intensity of conflicts within”each country used by the Global Peace Index,but derived by the Economist IntelligenceUnit (EIU). The next two variables rate thelevel of fatalities and injuries resulting fromterrorism. Those figures, from the Universityof Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database, includedeaths and injuries of both perpetratorsand victims.The next component rates women’s securi-