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UNIVERSITY OF MILANO COMPARATIVE POLITICS 2013 Paulina Przybylska

UNIVERSITY OF MILANO COMPARATIVE POLITICS 2013 Paulina Przybylska. WHAT IS FREEDOM HOUSE?. Freedom House is a Washington-based non-governmental organisation established in 1941 to promote democracy around the globe Assesses democracy in 193 countries by examining the availability of

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UNIVERSITY OF MILANO COMPARATIVE POLITICS 2013 Paulina Przybylska

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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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