Freedom in the World

Last updated

2023 Freedom in the World.png
2022 [1]
1973 Freedom in the World.png
1972
  Free  Partly Free  Not Free  Not Covered

Freedom in the World is a yearly survey and report by the U.S.-based [2] non-governmental organization Freedom House that measures the degree of civil liberties and political rights in every nation and significant related and disputed territories around the world.

Contents

Origin and use

Freedom in the World was launched in 1973 by Raymond Gastil. It produces annual scores representing the levels of political rights and civil liberties in each state and territory, on a scale from 1 (most free) to 7 (least free). Depending on the ratings, the nations are then classified as "Free", "Partly Free", or "Not Free". [3] The report is often used by researchers in order to measure democracy and correlates highly with several other measures of democracy such as the Polity data series. [4]

The Freedom House rankings are widely reported in the media and used as sources by political researchers. Their construction and use has been evaluated by critics and supporters. [5]

Country rankings

Countries designated "electoral democracies" in Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2023 survey, covering the year 2022. Electoral democracies.svg
   Countries designated "electoral democracies" in Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2023 survey, covering the year 2022.

The rankings are from the Freedom in the World 2019, [7] 2020, [8] 2021, [9] and 2022 surveys, each report covering the previous year. The average of each pair of ratings on political rights and civil liberties determines the overall status of "Free" (1.0–2.5), "Partly Free" (3.0–5.0), or "Not Free" (5.5–7.0). [10]

An asterisk (*) indicates countries which are "electoral democracies". To qualify as an "electoral democracy", a state must have satisfied the following criteria:

  1. A competitive, multiparty political system;
  2. Adult suffrage for all citizens without criminal convictions (some states may further punish and subjugate people with criminal convictions by disenfranchising them from the democratic process);
  3. Regularly contested elections conducted in conditions of ballot secrecy, reasonable ballot security, and the absence of massive voter fraud that yields results that are unrepresentative of the public will; and
  4. Significant public access of major political parties to the electorate through the media and through generally open political campaigning.

An electoral democracy must have a score of 7 or more out of 12 in political rights subcategory A (Electoral Progress), an overall aggregate score of 20 in their political rights rating and an overall aggregate score of 30 in their civil liberties rating. [11]

Freedom House's term "electoral democracy" differs from "liberal democracy" in that the latter also implies the presence of a substantial array of civil liberties. In the survey, all Free countries qualify as both electoral and liberal democracies. By contrast, some Partly Free countries qualify as electoral, but not liberal, democracies. [10]

World

* indicates "Civil liberties in country or territory" or "Human rights in country or territory" links.

PR = political rights, CL = civil liberties

CountryElectoral democracy2019202020212022
PRCLFreePtsPRCLFreePtsPRCLFreePtsPRCLFreePts
Flag of the Taliban.svg Afghanistan * No56Not2756Not2756Not2777Not2
Flag of Albania.svg Albania * Yes33Partly6833Partly6733Partly6633Partly67
Flag of Algeria.svg Algeria * No65Not3465Not3465Not3265Not32
Flag of Andorra.svg Andorra * Yes11Free9411Free9411Free9311Free93
Flag of Angola.svg Angola * No65Not3165Not3265Not3165Not30
Flag of Antigua and Barbuda.svg Antigua and Barbuda Yes22Free8422Free8522Free8522Free85
Flag of Argentina.svg Argentina * Yes22Free8422Free8522Free8422Free84
Flag of Armenia.svg Armenia * No44Partly5144Partly5344Partly5544Partly55
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Australia * Yes11Free9811Free9711Free9711Free95
Flag of Austria.svg Austria * Yes11Free9311Free9311Free9311Free93
Flag of Azerbaijan.svg Azerbaijan * No76Not1176Not1076Not1076Not9
Flag of the Bahamas.svg Bahamas Yes11Free9111Free9111Free9111Free91
Flag of Bahrain.svg Bahrain * No76Not1276Not1176Not1276Not12
Flag of Bangladesh.svg Bangladesh * No55Partly4155Partly3955Partly3955Partly39
Flag of Barbados.svg Barbados Yes11Free9611Free9511Free9511Free95
Flag of Belarus.svg Belarus * No76Not1976Not1976Not1177Not8
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgium * Yes11Free9611Free9611Free9611Free96
Flag of Belize.svg Belize Yes12Free8622Free8621Free8721Free87
Flag of Benin.svg Benin * No22Free7942Partly6642Partly6553Partly59
Flag of Bhutan.svg Bhutan * Yes34Partly5934Partly5924Partly6134Partly61
Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg Bolivia * Yes33Partly6733Partly6333Partly6633Partly66
Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina.svg Bosnia and Herzegovina * No44Partly5344Partly5344Partly5344Partly53
Flag of Botswana.svg Botswana * Yes32Free7232Free7232Free7232Free72
Flag of Brazil.svg Brazil * Yes22Free7522Free7523Free7423Free73
Flag of Brunei.svg Brunei * No65Not2965Not2865Not2865Not28
Flag of Bulgaria.svg Bulgaria * Yes22Free8022Free8022Free7822Free79
Flag of Burkina Faso.svg Burkina Faso * Yes43Partly6044Partly5644Partly5444Partly53
Flag of Burundi.svg Burundi * No76Not1476Not1376Not1476Not14
Flag of Cambodia.svg Cambodia * No65Not2675Not2575Not2475Not24
Flag of Cameroon.svg Cameroon * No66Not1966Not1866Not1666Not15
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Canada * Yes11Free9911Free9811Free9811Free98
Flag of Cape Verde.svg Cape Verde * Yes11Free9011Free9211Free9211Free92
Flag of the Central African Republic.svg Central African Republic * No77Not977Not1077Not977Not7
Flag of Chad.svg Chad * No76Not1776Not1776Not1776Not15
Flag of Chile.svg Chile * Yes11Free9412Free9011Free9311Free94
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg China * No76Not1176Not1076Not976Not9
Flag of Colombia.svg Colombia * Yes33Partly6633Partly6633Partly6533Partly64
Flag of the Comoros.svg Comoros * No44Partly5044Partly4454Partly4254Partly42
Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.svg DR Congo * No76Not1576Not1876Not20
Flag of the Republic of the Congo.svg Congo * No75Not2175Not2075Not20
Flag of Costa Rica.svg Costa Rica * Yes11Free9111Free9111Free91
Flag of Croatia.svg Croatia * Yes12Free8512Free8512Free85
Flag of Cuba.svg Cuba * No76Not1476Not1476Not13
Flag of Cyprus.svg Cyprus * Yes11Free9411Free9411Free94
Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Czech Republic * Yes11Free9111Free9111Free91
Flag of Denmark.svg Denmark * Yes11Free9711Free9711Free97
Flag of Djibouti.svg Djibouti * No65Not2675Not2475Not24
Flag of Dominica.svg Dominica Yes11Free9311Free9311Free93
Flag of the Dominican Republic.svg Dominican Republic * Yes33Partly6733Partly6733Partly67
Flag of East Timor.svg East Timor * Yes23Free7023Free7123Free72
Flag of Ecuador.svg Ecuador * Yes33Partly6333Partly6533Partly67
Flag of Egypt.svg Egypt * No66Not2266Not2166Not18
Flag of El Salvador.svg El Salvador * Yes23Free6724Partly6624Partly63
Flag of Equatorial Guinea.svg Equatorial Guinea * No77Not677Not677Not5
Flag of Eritrea.svg Eritrea * No77Not277Not277Not2
Flag of Estonia.svg Estonia * Yes11Free9411Free9411Free94
Flag of Ethiopia.svg Ethiopia * No66Not1966Not2466Not22
Flag of Eswatini.svg Eswatini * No76Not1675Not1975Not19
Flag of Fiji.svg Fiji * Yes33Partly6133Partly6033Partly60
Flag of Finland.svg Finland * Yes11Free10011Free10011Free100
Flag of France.svg France * Yes12Free9012Free9012Free90
Flag of Gabon.svg Gabon * No75Not2375Not2275Not22
Flag of The Gambia.svg Gambia No45Partly4544Partly4644Partly46
Flag of Georgia.svg Georgia * Yes33Partly6333Partly6143Partly60
Flag of Germany.svg Germany * Yes11Free9411Free9411Free94
Flag of Ghana.svg Ghana * Yes12Free8322Free8222Free82
Flag of Greece.svg Greece * Yes12Free8712Free8812Free87
Flag of Grenada.svg Grenada Yes12Free8912Free8912Free89
Flag of Guatemala.svg Guatemala * No44Partly5344Partly5244Partly52
Flag of Guinea.svg Guinea * No54Partly4355Partly4055Partly38
Flag of Guinea-Bissau.svg Guinea-Bissau No54Partly4254Partly4654Partly44
Flag of Guyana.svg Guyana * Yes23Free7523Free7423Free73
Flag of Haiti.svg Haiti * No55Partly4155Partly3855Partly37
Flag of Honduras.svg Honduras * No44Partly4644Partly4545Partly44
Flag of Hungary.svg Hungary * Yes33Partly7033Partly7033Partly69
Flag of Iceland.svg Iceland * Yes11Free9411Free9411Free94
Flag of India.svg India * Yes23Free7523Free7124Partly67
Flag of Indonesia.svg Indonesia * No24Partly6224Partly6124Partly59
Flag of Iran.svg Iran * No66Not1866Not1766Not16
Flag of Iraq.svg Iraq * No56Not3256Not3156Not29
Flag of Ireland.svg Ireland * Yes11Free9711Free9711Free97
Flag of Israel.svg Israel * Yes23Free7823Free7623Free76
Flag of Italy.svg Italy * Yes11Free8911Free8911Free90
Flag of Cote d'Ivoire.svg Ivory Coast * No44Partly5144Partly5154Partly44
Flag of Jamaica.svg Jamaica * Yes22Free7822Free7822Free80
Flag of Japan.svg Japan * Yes11Free9611Free9611Free96
Flag of Jordan.svg Jordan * No55Partly3755Partly3765Not34
Flag of Kazakhstan.svg Kazakhstan * No75Not75Not2375Not23
Flag of Kenya.svg Kenya * No44Partly4844Partly4844Partly48
Flag of Kiribati.svg Kiribati * Yes11Free9311Free9311Free93
Flag of Kosovo.svg Kosovo Yes34Partly5434Partly5644Partly54
Flag of Kuwait.svg Kuwait * No55Partly3655Partly3655Partly37
Flag of Kyrgyzstan (2023).svg Kyrgyzstan * No54Partly3854Partly3975Not28
Flag of Laos.svg Laos * No76Not1476Not1476Not13
Flag of Latvia.svg Latvia * Yes22Free8712Free8912Free89
Flag of Lebanon.svg Lebanon * No54Partly4554Partly4454Partly43
Flag of Lesotho.svg Lesotho * Yes33Partly6333Partly6333Partly63
Flag of Liberia.svg Liberia * Yes33Partly6234Partly6034Partly60
Flag of Libya.svg Libya * No76Not976Not976Not9
Flag of Liechtenstein.svg Liechtenstein * Yes21Free9021Free9021Free90
Flag of Lithuania.svg Lithuania * Yes11Free9111Free9112Free90
Flag of Luxembourg.svg Luxembourg Yes11Free9811Free9811Free97
Flag of Madagascar.svg Madagascar * Yes34Partly5633Partly6134Partly60
Flag of Malawi.svg Malawi * Yes33Partly6433Partly6233Partly66
Flag of Malaysia.svg Malaysia * No44Partly5244Partly5244Partly51
Flag of Maldives.svg Maldives * No55Partly3545Partly4045Partly40
Flag of Mali.svg Mali * No44Partly4455Partly4165Not33
Flag of Malta.svg Malta * Yes21Free9121Free9021Free90
Flag of the Marshall Islands.svg Marshall Islands * Yes11Free9311Free9311Free93
Flag of Mauritania.svg Mauritania * No65Not3255Partly3455Partly35
Flag of Mauritius.svg Mauritius Yes12Free8912Free8912Free87
Flag of Mexico.svg Mexico * Yes33Partly6333Partly6234Partly61
Flag of the Federated States of Micronesia.svg Micronesia * Yes11Free9211Free9211Free92
Flag of Moldova.svg Moldova * Yes34Partly5834Partly6033Partly61
Flag of Monaco.svg Monaco * Yes31Free8231Free8331Free83
Flag of Mongolia.svg Mongolia * Yes12Free8512Free8412Free84
Flag of Montenegro.svg Montenegro Yes43Partly6543Partly6233Partly63
Flag of Morocco.svg Morocco * No55Partly3955Partly3755Partly37
Flag of Mozambique.svg Mozambique * No44Partly5154Partly4554Partly43
Flag of Myanmar.svg Myanmar * No55Partly3056Not3056Not28
Flag of Namibia.svg Namibia * Yes32Free7522Free7722Free77
Flag of Nauru.svg Nauru * Yes22Free7823Free7723Free77
Flag of Nepal.svg Nepal * Yes34Partly5434Partly5634Partly56
Flag of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands * Yes11Free9911Free9911Free98
Flag of New Zealand.svg New Zealand * Yes11Free9811Free9711Free99
Flag of Nicaragua.svg Nicaragua * No65Not3265Not3165Not30
Flag of Niger.svg Niger * No44Partly4944Partly4844Partly48
Flag of Nigeria.svg Nigeria * No35Partly5045Partly4745Partly45
Flag of North Korea.svg North Korea * No77Not377Not377Not3
Flag of North Macedonia.svg North Macedonia * Yes43Partly5933Partly6333Partly66
Flag of Norway.svg Norway * Yes11Free10011Free10011Free100
Flag of Oman.svg Oman * No65Not2365Not2365Not23
Flag of Pakistan.svg Pakistan * No55Partly3955Partly3855Partly37
Flag of Palau.svg Palau * Yes11Free9211Free9211Free92
Flag of Panama.svg Panama Yes12Free8412Free8422Free83
Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg Papua New Guinea * Yes43Partly6443Partly6243Partly62
Flag of Paraguay.svg Paraguay * Yes33Partly6533Partly6533Partly65
Flag of Peru.svg Peru * Yes23Free7323Free7233Partly71
Flag of the Philippines.svg Philippines * Yes33Partly6134Partly5934Partly56
Flag of Poland.svg Poland * Yes22Free8422Free8422Free82
Flag of Portugal.svg Portugal * Yes11Free9611Free9611Free96
Flag of Qatar.svg Qatar * No65Not2565Not2565Not25
Flag of Romania.svg Romania * Yes22Free8122Free8322Free83
Flag of Russia.svg Russia * No76Not2076Not2076Not20
Flag of Rwanda.svg Rwanda * No66Not2366Not2266Not21
Flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis.svg Saint Kitts and Nevis Yes11Free8911Free8921Free89
Flag of Saint Lucia.svg Saint Lucia Yes11Free9211Free9211Free91
Flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.svg Saint Vincent and the Grenadines * Yes11Free9111Free9111Free91
Flag of Samoa.svg Samoa * Yes22Free8122Free8122Free81
Flag of San Marino.svg San Marino Yes11Free9511Free9511Free93
Flag of Sao Tome and Principe.svg São Tomé and Príncipe * Yes22Free8322Free8422Free84
Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg Saudi Arabia * No77Not777Not777Not7
Flag of Senegal.svg Senegal * Yes23Free7233Partly7133Partly71
Flag of Serbia.svg Serbia * Yes33Partly6743Partly6643Partly64
Flag of Seychelles.svg Seychelles Yes33Partly7133Partly7223Free77
Flag of Sierra Leone.svg Sierra Leone * Yes33Partly6533Partly6533Partly65
Flag of Singapore.svg Singapore * No44Partly5144Partly5044Partly48
Flag of Slovakia.svg Slovakia * Yes12Free8812Free8811Free90
Flag of Slovenia.svg Slovenia Yes11Free9411Free9411Free95
Flag of the Solomon Islands.svg Solomon Islands * Yes22Free7922Free7922Free79
Flag of Somalia.svg Somalia * No77Not777Not777Not7
Flag of South Africa.svg South Africa * Yes22Free7922Free7922Free79
Flag of South Korea.svg South Korea * Yes22Free8322Free8322Free83
Flag of South Sudan.svg South Sudan * No77Not277Not277Not2
Flag of Spain.svg Spain * Yes11Free9411Free9211Free90
Flag of Sri Lanka.svg Sri Lanka * Yes34Partly5644Partly5644Partly56
Flag of Sudan.svg Sudan * No77Not776Not1276Not17
Flag of Suriname.svg Suriname * Yes23Free7723Free7522Free79
Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden * Yes11Free10011Free10011Free100
Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Switzerland * Yes11Free9611Free9611Free96
Flag of Syria.svg Syria * No77Not077Not077Not1
Flag of Tajikistan.svg Tajikistan * No76Not976Not976Not8
Flag of Tanzania.svg Tanzania * No45Partly4555Partly4055Partly34
Flag of Thailand.svg Thailand * No75Not3064Partly3275Not30
Flag of Togo.svg Togo * No54Partly4354Partly4454Partly43
Flag of Tonga.svg Tonga * Yes22Free7922Free7922Free79
Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg Trinidad and Tobago * Yes22Free8222Free8222Free82
Flag of Tunisia.svg Tunisia * Yes23Free6923Free7023Free71
Flag of Turkey.svg Turkey * No56Not3156Not3256Not32
Flag of Turkmenistan.svg Turkmenistan * No77Not277Not277Not2
Flag of Tuvalu.svg Tuvalu * Yes11Free9311Free9311Free93
Flag of Uganda.svg Uganda * No65Not3665Not3465Not34
Flag of Ukraine.svg Ukraine * No34Partly6033Partly6234Partly60
Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg United Arab Emirates * No76Not1776Not1776Not17
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom * Yes11Free9311Free9411Free93
Flag of the United States.svg United States * Yes21Free8621Free8622Free83
Flag of Uruguay.svg Uruguay * Yes11Free11Free9811Free98
Flag of Uzbekistan.svg Uzbekistan * No76Not76Not1076Not11
Flag of Vanuatu.svg Vanuatu * Yes22Free8222Free8222Free82
Flag of Venezuela.svg Venezuela * No76Not1976Not1676Not14
Flag of Vietnam.svg Vietnam * No75Not2075Not2076Not19
Flag of Yemen.svg Yemen * No76Not1176Not1176Not11
Flag of Zambia.svg Zambia * No44Partly5444Partly5444Partly52
Flag of Zimbabwe.svg Zimbabwe * No55Partly3155Partly2965Not28

Territories and countries with limited recognition

Country2014201520162017201820202021 [12]
PRCLFreePRCLFreePRCLFreePRCLFreePRCLFreePRCLFreePtsPRCLFreePts
Flag of the Republic of Abkhazia.svg Abkhazia * 45Partly45Partly45Partly45Partly45Partly1723Partly401723Partly40
Flag of Crimea.svg Crimea (disputed)43Partly76Not76Not76Not76Not-210Not8-29Not7
Donetsk PR and Luhansk PR (disputed)-16Not5-15Not4
Gaza Strip (Palestine)76Not76Not76Not76Not76Not38Not1138Not11
Flag of Hong Kong.svg Hong Kong * (China)52Partly52Partly52Partly52Partly52Partly1639Partly551537Partly52
Indian Kashmir (India)44Partly44Partly44Partly44Partly44Partly820Not28720Not27
Azad Kashmir (Pakistan)65Not65Not65Not65Not65Not919Not28919Not28
Flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.svg Northern Cyprus * 22Free22Free22Free22Free22Free3150Free812850Free78
Flag of Puerto Rico.svg Puerto Rico (United States)*12Free12Free11Free [13]
Flag of Somaliland.svg Somaliland * 45Partly45Partly55Partly55Partly45Partly1724Partly411824Partly42
Flag of South Ossetia.svg South Ossetia * 76Not76Not76Not76Not76Not28Not1028Not10
Flag of the Republic of China.svg Taiwan * 11Free9311Free94
Tibet (China)77Not77Not77Not77Not77Not-23Not1-23Not1
Flag of Transnistria (state).svg Transnistria * 66Not66Not66Not66Not66Not913Not22812Not20
West Bank (Palestine)65Not65Not65Not75Not75Not421Not25421Not25
Flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.svg Western Sahara * 77Not77Not77Not77Not77Not-37Not4-37Not4

Former entries

Former entries from Freedom in the World. Most are territories added in the 1978 report for 1977 and received their last coverage in the 2000 report of the same year. Other territories with differing dates are noted below. Their placements are based on their final rankings before ceasing coverage.

Free

Partly Free

Not Free

According to Freedom House, a quarter of all declines of freedom in the world in 2016 took place in Europe. [14]

Percentage of countries in each category, from the 1973 through 2021 reports:

Freedom in the World graph.svg 1973–2021

  Not Free
  Partly Free
  Free

  Electoral Democracies
Year
Free
Partly
Free
Not
Free
Electoral
Democracies
197541 (27%)48 (32%)63 (41%)
198051 (32%)54 (33%)56 (35%)
198553 (32%)59 (35%)55 (33%)
199061 (37%)44 (26%)62 (37%)69 (41%)
199576 (40%)61 (32%)54 (28%)113 (59%)
200085 (44%)60 (31%)47 (25%)120 (63%)
200589 (46%)54 (28%)49 (26%)119 (62%)
201089 (46%)58 (30%)47 (24%)116 (60%)
201187 (45%)60 (31%)47 (24%)115 (59%)
201287 (45%)60 (31%)48 (25%)117 (60%)
201390 (46%)58 (30%)47 (24%)117 (60%)
201488 (45%)59 (30%)48 (25%)122 (63%)
201589 (46%)55 (28%)51 (26%)125 (64%)
201686 (44%)59 (30%)50 (26%)125 (64%)
201787 (45%)59 (30%)49 (25%)123 (63%)
201888 (45%)58 (30%)49 (25%)116 (59%)
201986 (44%)59 (30%)50 (26%)115 (59%)
202083 (43%)63 (32%)49 (25%)115 (59%)
202182 (42%)59 (30%)54 (28%)114 (58%)
202283 (43%)56 (29%)56 (29%)115 (59%)
202384 (43%)54 (28%)57 (29%)110 (56%)

Sources: Country Status and ratings overview 1973–2016, [15] Number and percentages of electoral democracies 1989–2016, [16] Freedom in the World 2018 report covering 2017. [17]

Notes:

Evaluation

There is some debate over the neutrality of Freedom House and the methodology used for the Freedom in the World report, which has been written by Raymond Gastil and his colleagues. [3] The neutrality and biases of human-rights indices have been discussed in several publications by Kenneth A. Bollen. [18] Bollen wrote that "Considered together these criticisms suggest that some nations may have been incorrectly rated on Gastil's measures. However, none of the criticisms have demonstrated a systematic bias in all the ratings. Most of the evidence consists of anecdotal evidence of relatively few cases. Whether there is a systematic or sporadic slant in Gastil's ratings is an open question" (Bollen, 1986, p. 586). [3] The freedom index of Freedom in the World has a very strong and positive (at least an 80%) correlation with three other democracy-indices studied in Mainwaring (2001, p. 53). [19]

Ideological bias or neutrality

In his 1986 study, Bollen discussed reviews of measurements of human rights, including the index reported in Freedom in the World (Bollen, 1986, p. 585). Criticisms of Freedom in the World during the 1980s were discussed by Gastil (1990), who stated that "generally such criticism is based on opinions about Freedom House rather than detailed examination of survey ratings", a conclusion disputed by Giannone. [20] The definition of Freedom in Gastil (1982) and Freedom House (1990) emphasized liberties rather than the exercise of freedom, according to Adam Przeworski, who gave the following example: In the United States, citizens are free to form political parties and to vote, yet even in presidential elections only half of U.S. "citizens" vote; in the U.S., "the same two parties speak in a commercially sponsored unison", wrote Przeworski (2003 , p. 277). [5]

More recent charges of ideological bias prompted Freedom House to issue this 2010 statement:

Freedom House does not maintain a culture-bound view of freedom. The methodology of the survey is grounded in basic standards of political rights and civil liberties, derived in large measure from relevant portions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These standards apply to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development. [10]

Mainwaring et alia (2001, p. 52) [19] wrote that Freedom House's index had "two systematic biases: scores for leftist were tainted by political considerations, and changes in scores are sometimes driven by changes in their criteria rather than changes in real conditions." Nonetheless, when evaluated in Latin American countries yearly, Freedom House's index was very strongly and positively correlated with the index of Adam Przeworski and with the index of the authors themselves: They evaluated Pearson's coefficient of linear correlation between their index and Freedom House's index, which was 0.82; among these indices and the two others studied, the correlations were all between 0.80 and 0.86 (Mainwaring et alia, 2001, p. 53). [19]

As previously quoted, Bollen criticized previous studies of Freedom in the World as anecdotal and inconclusive; they raised issues needing further study by scientific methods rather than anecdotes. [3] Bollen studied the question of ideological bias using multivariate statistics. Using their factor-analytic model for human-rights measurements, Bollen and Paxton estimate that Gastil's method produces a bias of -0.38  standard deviations  (s.d.) against Marxist–Leninist countries and a larger bias, +0.5 s.d., favoring Christian countries; similar results held for the methodology of Sussman (Bollen and Paxton, 2000, p. 585). [21] In contrast, another method by a critic of Freedom in the World produced a bias for Leftist countries during the 1980s of at least +0.8 s.d., a bias that is "consistent with the general finding that political scientists are more favorable to leftist politics than is the general population" (Bollen and Paxton, p. 585). [21]

Coder bias

Political scientists Andrew T. Little and Anne Meng argued that the data produced by Freedom House and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project relies heavily on subjective, as opposed to objective, measures and thus are tainted by coder bias. [22]

Use and conceptual analysis

Criticisms of the reception and uses of the Freedom in the World report have been noted by Diego Giannone: [23] [ unreliable source? ]

Time series

In "Political and ideological aspects in the measurement of democracy: the Freedom House case" (2010) which reviewed changes to the methodology since 1990, Diego Giannone concluded that "because of the changes in methodology over time and the strict interconnection between methodological and political aspects, the FH data do not offer an unbroken and politically neutral time series, such that they should not be used for cross-time analyses even for the development of first hypotheses. The internal consistency of the data series is open to question." [29]

On this topic, the Freedom House website replies that they have "made a number of modest methodological changes to adapt to evolving ideas about political rights and civil liberties. At the same time, the time series data are not revised retroactively, and any changes to the methodology are introduced incrementally in order to ensure the comparability of the ratings from year to year." [10]

See also

Notes

  1. Gorokhovskaia, Yana; Shahbaz, Adrian; Slipowitz, Amy (9 March 2023). "Marking 50 Years in the Struggle for Democracy". Freedom House. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  2. William Ide (11 January 2000). "Freedom House Report: Asia Sees Some Significant Progress". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Bollen, K.A., "Political Rights and Political Liberties in Nations: An Evaluation of Human Rights Measures, 1950 to 1984", Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 4 (November 1986), pp.567–591. Also in: Jabine, T.B. and Pierre Claude, R. (Eds.), Human Rights and Statistics, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992, pp. 188–215, ISBN   0-8122-3108-2.
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  5. 1 2 Przeworski, Adam (2003). "Freedom to choose and democracy". Economics and Philosophy. 19 (2): 265–279. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.570.736 . doi:10.1017/S0266267103001159. S2CID   38812895.
  6. List of Electoral Democracies FIW23 (.XLSX), by Freedom House
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  9. "Freedom in the World 2021" (PDF). Freedom House. 3 March 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
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  17. Freedom In the World 2018, Freedom House.
  18. Bollen has held chairs as a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Also serving as an Adjunct Professor of Statistics at UNC-CH, Bollen wrote the leading graduate textbook in structural equation models (SEM), often called LISREL models; SEM modeling allows the summary of a large number of measurements using a small number of meaningful factors. SEM was used by Bollen in the studies reported hereafter.
  19. 1 2 3 Mainwaring, S.; Brinks, D.; Pérez-Liñán, A.B. (2001). "Classifying Political Regimes in Latin". Studies in Comparative International Development. 36 (1): 37–65. doi:10.1007/BF02687584. S2CID   155047996.
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  22. Andrew Little and Anne Meng,“Measuring Democratic Backsliding.“ PS: Political Science & Politics (forthcoming). https://osf.io/n32zk/
  23. Giannone, Diego, "Political and ideological aspects in the measurement of democracy: the Freedom House case", Democratization, vol. 17, no. 1 (February 2010), pp. 68–97.
  24. "Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics." The American Political Science Review 64 (4): 1033–1053.
  25. Giannone (2010), p. 69. Quoting Landman, Tod, and Julia Hausermann, indicators/GovIndicatorsEssex2003.pdf Map-Making and Analysis of the Main International Initiatives on Developing Indicators on Democracy and Good Governance [ dead link ], Final Report, University of Essex – Human Rights Centre, July 2003, 98 pp.
  26. Scoble, Harry and Laurie Wiseberg, Ved Nanda, Ved, James Scarritt, and George Shepherd (eds) (1981), "Problems of Comparative Research in Human Rights", Global Human Rights: Public Policies, Comparative Measures and NGO Strategies, pp. 147–171, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, ISBN   978-0-89158-858-0. Cited in Giannone (2010), p. 69.
  27. 1 2 Giannone (2010), p. 69, citing Scoble, et al. (1981) and Axel Hadenius and Jan Teorell. "Assessing Alternative Indices of Democracy", Political Concepts, Committee on Concepts and Methods, Working Paper Series, August 2005, 47 pp.
  28. Munck, Gerardo L. and Verkuilen, Jay, CPS 2002.pdf "Conceptualising and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating Alternative Indices" [ dead link ], Comparative Political Studies, vol. 35, no. 1 (February 2002), pp. 5–34. Cited in Giannone (2010), p. 69.
  29. Giannone (2010), p. 68.

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References