Freedom in the World is a yearly survey and report by U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

-based Freedom House

Freedom House

Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...

 that attempts to measure the degree of democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 and political freedom

Freedom (political)

Political freedom is a central philosophy in Western history and political thought, and one of the most important features of democratic societies...

 in every nation and significant disputed territories around the world.

Origin and use

Freedom in the World was launched in 1973 by Raymond Gastil

Raymond Gastil

Raymond Duncan Gastil is an American social scientist, best known for evaluating political freedom in the Freedom in the World reports published by Freedom House".-Biography:...

. 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". 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

Polity data series

The Polity data series is a widely used data series in political science research. The latest version, Polity IV, contains coded annual information on regime authority characteristics and transitions for all independent states with greater than 500,000 total population and covers the years...

.

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.

Country rankings

The rankings below are from the Freedom in the World 2010 and Freedom in the World 2011 surveys and reflect events in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Each pair of political rights and civil liberties ratings is averaged to determine an overall status of "Free" (1.0-2.5), "Partly Free" (3.0-5.0), or "Not Free" (5.5-7.0).

An asterisk (*) indicates countries which are "electoral democracies

Representative democracy

Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to autocracy and direct democracy...

". To qualify as an "electoral democracy", a state must have satisfied the following criteria:

1. A competitive, multiparty political system;
2. Universal adult suffrage for all citizens (with exceptions for restrictions that states may legitimately place on citizens as sanctions for criminal offenses);
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.

Freedom House's term "electoral democracy" differs from "liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...

" 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.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Key: * - Electoral democracies (as described above)

Country	Political Rights 2010	Civil Liberties 2010	Status 2010	Political Rights 2011	Civil Liberties 2011	Status 2011
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
*	3	2	Free	3	2	Free
	5	3	Partly Free	5	3	Partly Free
	4	5	Partly Free	5	5	Partly Free
	6	6	Not Free	6	6	Not Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
	5	5	Partly Free	5	5	Partly Free
	7	6	Not Free	7	6	Not Free
*	3	4	Partly Free	3	4	Partly Free
Republic of the Congo Congo, Republic of Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
Congo, Democratic Republic of	6	6	Not Free	6	6	Not Free
	6	5	Not Free	7	6	Not Free
	5	5	Partly Free	6	5	Not Free
	7	7	Not Free	7	7	Not Free
	7	7	Not Free	7	7	Not Free
	5	5	Partly Free	6	6	Not Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
	5	5	Partly Free	5	5	Partly Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
	7	6	Not Free	5	5	Partly Free
	4	4	Partly Free	4	4	Partly Free
	4	4	Partly Free	4	3	Partly Free
*	3	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	3	4	Partly Free	3	4	Partly Free
	6	4	Partly Free	6	4	Partly Free
*	3	4	Partly Free	3	4	Partly Free
*	2	3	Free	2	3	Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
	4	3	Partly Free	4	3	Partly Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
	5	4	Partly Free	5	4	Partly Free
	5	4	Partly Free	4	4	Partly Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
*	3	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	3	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	3	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
	7	7	Not Free	7	7	Not Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
	7	7	Not Free	7	7	Not Free
	7	5	Not Free	7	5	Not Free
*	4	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
	5	4	Partly Free	5	4	Partly Free
	5	4	Partly Free	5	4	Partly Free
*	3	4	Partly Free	3	4	Partly Free
	6	6	Not Free	6	6	Not Free

Americas

Key: * - Electoral democracies (as described above)

Country	Political Rights 2010	Civil Liberties 2010	Status 2010	Political Rights 2011	Civil Liberties 2011	Status 2011
*	3	2	Free	3	2	Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
*	3	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	3	4	Partly Free	3	4	Partly Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
	7	6	Not Free	7	6	Not Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
*	3	4	Partly Free	3	4	Partly Free
*	2	3	Free	2	3	Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
*	4	4	Partly Free	4	4	Partly Free
*	2	3	Free	2	3	Free
	4	5	Partly Free	4	5	Partly Free
	4	4	Partly Free	4	4	Partly Free
*	2	3	Free	2	3	Free
*	2	3	Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	4	4	Partly Free	4	4	Partly Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
*	3	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	2	3	Free	2	3	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	2	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
	5	4	Partly Free	5	4	Partly Free

Asia-Pacific

Key: * - Electoral democracies (as described above)

Country	Political Rights 2010	Civil Liberties 2010	Status 2010	Political Rights 2011	Civil Liberties 2011	Status 2011
	6	6	Not Free	6	6	Not Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	3	4	Partly Free	3	4	Partly Free
	4	5	Partly Free	4	5	Partly Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
(Myanmar)	7	7	Not Free	7	7	Not Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
(PRC)	7	6	Not Free	7	6	Not Free
*	3	4	Partly Free	3	4	Partly Free
	6	4	Partly Free	6	4	Partly Free
*	2	3	Free	2	3	Free
*	2	3	Free	2	3	Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
	7	6	Not Free	7	6	Not Free
	4	4	Partly Free	4	4	Partly Free
*	3	4	Partly Free	3	4	Partly Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
Federated States of Micronesia Micronesia Federated States of Micronesia The Federated States of Micronesia or FSM is an independent, sovereign island nation, made up of four states from west to east: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae. It comprises approximately 607 islands with c... *	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
	4	4	Partly Free	4	4	Partly Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
	7	7	Not Free	7	7	Not Free
	4	5	Partly Free	4	5	Partly Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	4	3	Partly Free	4	3	Partly Free
*	4	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
	5	4	Partly Free	5	4	Partly Free
	4	3	Partly Free	4	3	Partly Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
	4	4	Partly Free	5	4	Partly Free
* (ROC)	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
	5	4	Partly Free	5	4	Partly Free
*	5	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
	7	5	Not Free	7	5	Not Free

Central and Eastern Europe, including countries of the former Soviet Union

Key: * - Electoral democracies (as described above)

Country	Political Rights 2010	Civil Liberties 2010	Status 2010	Political Rights 2011	Civil Liberties 2011	Status 2011
*	3	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
	6	4	Partly Free	6	4	Partly Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
	7	6	Not Free	7	6	Not Free
*	4	3	Partly Free	4	3	Partly Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
	4	4	Partly Free	4	3	Partly Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
Republic of Kosovo	5	4	Partly Free	5	4	Partly Free
	6	5	Not Free	5	5	Partly Free
*	2	1	Free	2	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
Republic of Macedonia Macedonia Republic of Macedonia Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991... *	3	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	3	4	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	3	2	Free	3	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
*	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
	7	7	Not Free	7	7	Not Free
*	3	2	Free	3	3	Partly Free
	7	7	Not Free	7	7	Not Free

Western, Northern and Southern Europe

Key: * - Electoral democracies (as described above)

Country	Political Rights 2010	Civil Liberties 2010	Status 2010	Political Rights 2011	Civil Liberties 2011	Status 2011
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
Republic of Ireland*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	2	1	Free	2	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
*	3	3	Partly Free	3	3	Partly Free
*	1	1	Free	1	1	Free

Middle East and North Africa

Key: * - Electoral democracies (as described above)

Country	Political Rights 2010	Civil Liberties 2010	Status 2010	Political Rights 2011	Civil Liberties 2011	Status 2011
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
	6	6	Not Free	6	6	Not Free
	5	6	Not Free	5	6	Not Free
*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
	4	4	Partly Free	4	5	Partly Free
	5	3	Partly Free	5	3	Partly Free
	7	7	Not Free	7	7	Not Free
	5	4	Partly Free	5	4	Partly Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
	7	6	Not Free	7	6	Not Free
	7	6	Not Free	7	6	Not Free
	7	5	Not Free	7	5	Not Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free

Related and disputed territories

Key: † - Related territory, ‡ - Disputed territory

Territory	Political Rights 2010	Civil Liberties 2010	Status 2010	Political Rights 2011	Civil Liberties 2011	Status 2011
Abkhazia‡ (Georgia Georgia (country) Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of... )	5	5	Partly Free	5	5	Partly Free
Gaza Strip‡ (PNA Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip... )	6	6	Not Free	6	6	Not Free
† (PRC)	5	2	Partly Free	5	2	Partly Free
India Kashmir Kashmir Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range... ‡ (India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... )	4	4	Partly Free	4	5	Partly Free
Pakistan Kashmir Kashmir Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range... ‡ (Pakistan)	6	5	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic‡ (Azerbaijan Azerbaijan Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to... )	5	5	Partly Free	6	5	Not Free
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus‡ (Cyprus Cyprus Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the... )	2	2	Free	2	2	Free
† (USA)	1	1	Free	1	1	Free
Somaliland‡ (Somalia Somalia Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory... )	5	5	Partly Free	4	5	Partly Free
South Ossetia‡ (Georgia Georgia (country) Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of... )	7	6	Not Free	7	6	Not Free
Tibet Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region , Tibet or Xizang for short, also called the Xizang Autonomous Region is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China , created in 1965.... ‡ (PRC)	7	7	Not Free	7	7	Not Free
Transnistria‡ (Moldova Moldova Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part... )	6	6	Not Free	6	6	Not Free
West Bank‡ (PNA Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip... )	6	6	Not Free	6	5	Not Free
‡ (Morocco Morocco Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara... )	7	6	Not Free	7	6	Not Free

Trends

Year	Free	Partly Free	Not Free	Electoral Democracies
1975	41 (27%)	48 (32%)	63 (41%)
1980	51 (32%)	54 (33%)	56 (35%)	--
1985	53 (32%)	59 (35%)	55 (33%)	--
1990	61 (37%)	44 (26%)	62 (37%)	069 (41%)
1995	76 (40%)	61 (32%)	54 (28%)	113 (59%)
2000	85 (44%)	60 (31%)	47 (25%)	120 (63%)
2005	89 (46%)	54 (28%)	49 (26%)	119 (62%)
2010	89 (46%)	58 (30%)	47 (24%)	116 (60%)
2011	87 (45%)	60 (31%)	47 (24%)	115 (59%)

Sources: "Historical Status Breakdown, 1972-2010" and "Electoral Democracies, 1989-2010", Freedom in the World 2011

Notes:

• The years shown in the map and table above are the year the survey was released, the data shown covers the prior calendar year.
• The map and table above do not include data for related/disputed territories.

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 D. Gastil

Raymond Gastil

Raymond Duncan Gastil is an American social scientist, best known for evaluating political freedom in the Freedom in the World reports published by Freedom House".-Biography:...

 and his colleagues. The neutrality and biases of human-rights indices have been discussed in several publications by Kenneth A. Bollen. Bollen wrote that, "no 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). The freedom index of Freedom in the World has a very strong and positive (at least an 80%) correlation

Correlation

In statistics, dependence refers to any statistical relationship between two random variables or two sets of data. Correlation refers to any of a broad class of statistical relationships involving dependence....

 with three other democracy-indices studied in (Mainwaring et alia, 2001, p. 53).

Ideological bias or neutrality

In his 1986 study, Bollen discussed reviews of measurements of human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

, 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. The definition of Freedom in Gastil (1982) and Freedom House (1990) emphasized liberties rather than the exercise of freedom, according to Adam Przeworski

Adam Przeworski

Adam Przeworski is a Polish-American professor of Political Science. One of the main important theorists and analysers of democratic societies, theory of democracy and political economy, he is currently a full professor at the Wilf Family Department of Politics of New York University.Born in 1940...

, 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 .

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

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

. These standards apply to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.

Mainwaring et al. (2001, p. 52) 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 on Latin American countries yearly, Freedom House's index were very strongly and positively correlated with the index of Adam Przeworski

Adam Przeworski

Adam Przeworski is a Polish-American professor of Political Science. One of the main important theorists and analysers of democratic societies, theory of democracy and political economy, he is currently a full professor at the Wilf Family Department of Politics of New York University.Born in 1940...

 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).

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. Bollen studied the question of ideological bias using multivariate statistics

Multivariate statistics

Multivariate statistics is a form of statistics encompassing the simultaneous observation and analysis of more than one statistical variable. The application of multivariate statistics is multivariate analysis...

. Using their factor-analytic

Factor analysis

Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved, uncorrelated variables called factors. In other words, it is possible, for example, that variations in three or four observed variables...

 model

Statistical model

A statistical model is a formalization of relationships between variables in the form of mathematical equations. A statistical model describes how one or more random variables are related to one or more random variables. The model is statistical as the variables are not deterministically but...

 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). 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).

Conceptual analysis

Other criticisms of Freedom House's methodology for Freedom in the World have been noted by Diego Giannone:

• "Conceptual stretching", Giovanni Sartori
  Giovanni Sartori
  Giovanni Sartori is an Italian political scientist specialized in the study of democracy and comparative politics.-Biography:Born in Florence in 1924. Sartori began his academic career as a lecturer in the History of Modern Philosophy...
  
  's critical term for a methodological shortcoming common in social studies. Giannone reports as an example that, according to Landman and Hausermann (2003), "the index by FH has been used as a tool for measuring democracy, good governance, and human rights, thus producing a conceptual stretching which is a major cause of 'losses in connotative precision': in short, an instrument used to measure everything, in the end, is not able to discriminate against anything."
• Issues with aggregation. Giannone quotes Scoble and Wiseberg's conclusion (1981) that "the sum of a civil liberty score of 4 and a political liberty score of 2 is the same as the sum of a civil liberty score of 2 and a political liberty score of 4 even though the substantive interpretation of these different combinations is different."
• "Lack of specificity and rigorousness in construction" and "inadequate level of transparency and replicability of the scales", the first referencing to Scoble et al. (1981) and the latter to Hadenius and Teorell (2005). In support of the latter, he also quotes the conclusion of Munck and Verkuilen (2002) that "the aggregate data offered by Freedom House has to be accepted largely on faith", due to the factors that "no set of coding rules is provided, and the sources of information are not identified with enough precision, and because disaggregated data have not been made available to independent scholars".

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."

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."

External links

• Freedom in the World - online at Freedom House