Freedom in the World 2005

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Press release
Essay: Civic Power and Electoral Politics

Since 1978, Freedom House has published Freedom in the World, an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties in 192 countries and 14 related and disputed territories. Widely used by policy-makers, journalists, and scholars, the 600-page survey is the definitive report on freedom around the globe.

Freedom in the World is the Michelin Guide to democracy's development.
—The Wall Street Journal

While there are many sources of economic data, good political data is hard to find. Freedom House's survey is an exception. For anyone concerned with the state of freedom, or simply with the state of the world, Freedom in the World is an indispensible guide.
—Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek

- www.freedomhouse.org/research/survey2005.htm

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

M. said:

Press release
Essay: Civic Power and Electoral Politics

Since 1978, Freedom House has published Freedom in the World, an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties in 192 countries and 14 related and disputed territories. Widely used by policy-makers, journalists, and scholars, the 600-page survey is the definitive report on freedom around the globe.

Freedom in the World is the Michelin Guide to democracy's development.
—The Wall Street Journal

While there are many sources of economic data, good political data is hard to find. Freedom House's survey is an exception. For anyone concerned with the state of freedom, or simply with the state of the world, Freedom in the World is an indispensible guide.
—Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek

- www.freedomhouse.org/research/survey2005.htm

I am now an American.
Mr. Beaux-Eaux;
Could you please condence the 600 pages into a 37 second sound byte, including 30 seconds for a word from our sponsor.
I laud you for your indepth research and wish I had your patience and time.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Habs_fan_in_LA said:

I am now an American.
Mr. Beaux-Eaux;
Could you please condence the 600 pages into a 37 second sound byte, including 30 seconds for a word from our sponsor.
I laud you for your indepth research and wish I had your patience and time.

Thanks for the compliment. However, I have to say that it's quite an easy task for me to dig up information as my work demands that I be "well-connected".

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Distrust can be overcome only when citizens manage to find methods of generating mutual benefit despite differences of position, experience and perspective. The discovery of such methods is the central project of democracy. Majority rule is nonsensical as a principle of fairness unless it is conducted in ways that provide minorities with reasons to remain attached to the polity. The central feature of democratic politics is therefore not its broad definition of citizenship or its ultimate dependence on majority rule, but rather its commitment to preserving the allegiance of all citizens, including electoral minorities, despite majority rule.

Would we join a club if we knew that all its policies would go against our own interests? No. Would we join if we knew that every vote would find us in the minority? We might, provided that we trusted that the majority decisions, despite our dissent, would still generally advance our own interests.

The central challenge for democracy is to develop methods for making majority decisions that, despite their partiality, also somehow incorporate the reasonable interests of those who have voted against those decisions, for otherwise minorities would have no reason to remain members of a democratic polity. Without such methods, popular government cannot become a stable form of political organization.

- full article