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Understanding Freedom House: Global Democracy Assessment

Learn about Freedom House, a Washington-based NGO assessing democracy in 193 countries based on political rights and civil liberties. Discover how they define "freedom," their map of freedom, and three category designations. Explore their signature reports and criticisms.

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Understanding Freedom House: Global Democracy Assessment

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  1. UNIVERSITY OF MILANO COMPARATIVE POLITICS 2013 Paulina Przybylska

  2. WHAT IS FREEDOM HOUSE? Freedom House is a Washington-based non-governmental organisationestablished in 1941 to promote democracy around the globe • Assesses democracy in 193 countries by examining the availability of • Political rights • civil liberties • Uses reports, assessments by scholars & experts to rate each country on a 7 point scale: • 1 is high…………......7 is low

  3. WHAT’S THE AIM? • Support to the expansion of freedom in the world • Freedom House is a catalyst for freedom, democracy, and the rule of law • Supports democratic change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights. • Aid to political science research

  4. What is Freedom House’s definition of “freedom”? • Freedom House measures freedom according to two broad categories: 1.Political rights -enable people to participate freely in the political process through the right to vote, compete for public office and elect representatives who have a decisive impact on public policies and are accountable to the electorate. 2.Civil liberties allow for: • the freedoms of expression and belief, • associational and organizational rights • rule of law, and personal autonomy without interference from the state

  5. Map of Freedom in the World:focuses on … • countries • territories (e.g., Palestinian Authority-Administered Territories or Nagorno-Karabakh).

  6.  Since 1972 Freedom House publishes an annual report, Freedom in the World, on the degree of democratic freedoms according tocivil and political rights on a scale from 1 (most free) to 7 (least free). • 1.0 to 2.5 considered "free". • States with values from 3.0 to 5.0were considered "partly free" • and those with values between 5.5 and 7.0 as "not free".

  7. THREE BROAD CATEGORY DESIGNATIONS: • FREE: - openpoliticalcompetition - a climate of respect for civilliberties - significant independent civic life independent media • PARTLY FREE: • Limited respect for politicalrights and civilliberties • Enviroment of corruption • Weakrule of law • Ethnic and religiousstrife • Single party enjoysdominancedespite a certaindegree of pluralism

  8. 3. NOT FREE: • Basic politicalrightsareabsent • Basic civillibertiesarewidely and systematicallydenied

  9. Scores for cases Freedom House scale from 1till 7 SouthAfrica Zimbabwe Argentina, India North Korea See: www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2007 1.0-2.5= free 3.0 - 5.0 = partlyfree5.5-7.0= not free

  10. WORST OF THE WORST: NOT FREE WITH THE LOWEST RATING 7: -NORTH KOREA -TURKMENISTAN -UZBEKISTAN -SUDAN -GUINEA -ERITREA -SAUDI ARABIA -SYRIA -SOMALIA -TIBET -WESTERN SAHARA SLIGHTY ABOVE 7: -BELARUS -CHAD -CHINA -CUBA -LAOS -SOUTH OSSETIA

  11. SIGNATURE REPORTS OF FREEDOM HOUSE: 1.Freedom intheWorld 2. Freedom on the Net 3. Freedom of the Press 4. Nationsin Transit -study of reform in the former Communist states of Europe and Eurasia 5. CountriesattheCrossroads - countries that are at a critical crossroads in determining their political future (ex. Egypt, Tunisia) 6. Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa

  12.  Nations are scored from 0 to 4 on several questions and the sum determines the rankings, ex: • Is the head of state and/or head of government or other chief authority elected through free and fair elections? • Is there an independent judiciary? • Are there free trade unions? • Is there effective collective bargaining?

  13. 1. Freedomintheworld:

  14. Index for: Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Venezuela, Azerbeijan • Declines Italy: politicalrightsratingsdeclinedfrom 1 to 2 due to continued, widespread grand and pettycorruption, especiallyinthesouth. 2. Trendsarrows down Greece: received a downward trend arrowdue to a significantupsureinright-wingviolence, led by Golden Dawn party, againstimmigrantgroups, theirsupporters, and thepoliticalleft, as well as thelack of effectivepoliceprotectionfromthisviolence

  15. 4. Nationsintransition

  16. NATIONS IN TRANSIT countries on the borderline of democracy: • AZERBEIJAN: CONSOLIDADED AUTHORITARIAN REGIME(closed societies in which dictators prevent political competition and pluralism and are responsible for widespread violations of basic political, civil, and human rights) • BULGARIA: SEMI-CONSOLIDADED DEMOCRACY(electoral democracies that meet relatively high standards for the selection of national leaders but exhibit some weaknesses in their defense of political rights and civil liberties) • HUNGARY: CONSOLIDADED DEMOCRACY

  17. Criticisms about Freedom House: Various sources of “bias” • issues with aggregation (different scores, same category) • inadequate level of transparency and replicability of the scales • ideological biases  scores for leftist governments are influenced by political considerations (negative conception of freedom); changes in scores are sometimes driven by changes in the criteria rather than changes in real conditions •  promoting U.S. government interests abroad

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