Freedom indexes, but which liberties?

For the third consecutive year, the Cato Institute in the United States, the Fraser Institute in Canada – two “think-tanks” of the libertarian right and the liberal institute of the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation in Germany – publish their “Human freedom Index 2017” which paints a comprehensive picture of individual, civil and economic liberties in the world. It is based on 79 indicators in 12 specific areas ranging from religious freedom to free trade.

According to this index, which analyses 159 countries in the world:
– The freedom in the world has slightly decreased compared to the previous Index and that of 2008, year for which the data are complete;
– Among the areas that have experienced a worldwide decline are the rule of law, freedom of movement, freedom of association, assembly and civil society, as well as freedom of expression and freedom of information. As a region, the Middle East and North Africa is the least free region and has also experienced one of the largest decreases in freedom among all regions. In contrast, Western Europe is the freest region.
– The index reflects significant declines in freedom in many countries that have evolved into authoritarian populism including Russia, Venezuela, Turkey, Hungary and Argentina.
– According to the authors, there is a close relationship between freedom and prosperity, with the first quartile countries having an average income per capita ($ 38,871) well above that of the lowest quartile countries ($ 10,346).

And, we may agree with these general conclusions, specifically the general decline of freedom of expression and freedom of information.

However, the analysis of the results by country leaves, to say the least, puzzled:
– Among the countries of the EU, the ranking is as follows: Finland (6), Denmark (8), United Kingdom (9), Sweden (13), Germany (16), Czech Republic (25), Romania (28), Poland (32), France (33), Italy (35), Bulgaria (41), Hungary (44), Greece (60).

– The United States ranks 17th, up 7 places from last year, but down from the 11th in 2008 a rank currently held by Canada. Other results are: Israel (46), Turkey (84), Lebanon (108) Tunisia (111), Morocco (122), Russia (126), China (130), Algeria (153) Egypt (155), Venezuela (158).

It is true that for the 3 institutes co-authors of the Human Freedom Index, any intervention of the governments in the economic life is considered an absolute evil. Large size governments and Keynesian policies are considered unbearable infringements of freedom. This is hardly surprising from conservative libertarian organizations that support Trump’s policy and advocate total liberalism. So the weight of these criteria is important in the Index construction. Similarly, both the Cato Institute and the Fraser Institute consider that global warming is exaggerated, and that the fight against it is only a means of limiting freedoms, etc., which obviously have consequences on the way the criteria are valuated.

: © Nuovolanevicata

: © nuvolanevicata - freedom of justice

: © Ben Garrison

In addition, the indicators related to the freedom of press and information domain constitute only one of the 12 domains analysed. And in these areas, the rankings of Reporters Without Borders (World Press Freedom index 2017 which compares 180 countries) is quite different, even if countries like France, United Kingdom and Italy do not have good results. The ranking of RSF is as follows:

* EU: Sweden (2), Finland (3), Denmark (4), Germany (16), Czech Republic (23), France (39), United Kingdom (40), Romania (46), Italy ( 52), Poland (54), Hungary (71), Greece (88), Bulgaria (109).

* Other States: Canada (22), USA (43), Israel (91), Lebanon (99), Tunisia (97), Morocco (133), Algeria (134), Russia (148), Turkey (155), Egypt (161), Venezuela (137) China (176).

**RSF, map of press freedom in the world 2017**

It is therefore necessary to be cautious when one use the term “freedom”, which according to the ideologies that animate its users can also mean monstrosity. As the French proverb says, “all that glitters is not gold“.