Freedom in the World Survey

Freedom in the World Survey

The definition of words and political ideas can have different meanings in different contexts, worldwide. In fact, the Freedom in the World Survey evaluates the state of political rights and civil liberties around the world. Provide a description of this survey and a ranking ( in terms of  “freedom”) of the world’s country leaders and laggards. What factors are taken into consideration in this survey?

Oxford Dictionaries.com defined freedom as “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.” As for the saying goes, politics systems totalis good narrative view of the nervous dictators and ambiguous democracies covered in Freedom in the World Survey. The survey has some compelling evaluation based on how free, partly free, and not free a country is. It’s quite shocking to see, whenever the US news outlets announce President Obama is the leader of the free world, they are referring to this report! Only 69 out of 195 countries are free. The state of political rights has really gotten worse over the last 8 years. When President Barack Obama took office in 2008 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, he was praised for his view of “hope and change” not accomplished yet. Geir Lundestad, the non-voting Director of the Nobel Institute until 2014, writes, “while the prize was designed to encourage the new president, it may have not have worked out as intended.” Based on the Freedom House report, 2% more countries today are not free since President Obama took office.

The Arab Spring of 2011 happened with great political cost. The energy in Tunisia by Mohammed Bouazizi ushered in a political reform movement and volatility. As Held and Ulrich reported in article in OpenDemocracy, “The resulting conflagration caught regimes by surprise and led to the rapid toppling of ‘Presidents-for-life’ in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and the grisly demise of Libya’s dictator of 42 years, Muammar Gaddafi.” The political uprising in the middle east have been brewing for years.

Political rights are not safely democratic ever in the middle east. Pure democracy countries lost some ground.  The political and economic upheaval in the Eurozone’s was being challenged because of the immigration of refugees to free countries. The wars in Iraq, upheaval in Libya, and now Syria and ISIS (Islamic State).  Dictators like Kaddafi in Libya left a power vacuum. Dictator leave constituents starving, scared, and disillusion furious with their governments, yet we forget in American we are still at war! For years’ terrorist group with extreme views really have gain tremendous power over the free world idea of safety. For example, the attacks in the US was terrorist, in Paris also home gown terrorist, and targeted so that many free economies felt personal pain.  

Yet, the most impactful was theocratic totalitarian governments, the Taliban.  Pakistan suffered great setbacks in freedom of expression and the rule of law. For example, the Taliban had lost respect among Arab countries trying to destroy Malala, a young girl who was shot for going to school in Taliban controlled, cities said Bio.com’s author Sara Kettle.

This economic and political landscape is changing fast with 40% free countries. Political upheaval brings lack of prosperity to its citizen when 36% in not free country. President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize and subsequent democratic political policy could have changed even more. Poltical pundits opine that Obama’s win was prematurely, but it was the right messgage at the right time. At lease Tunisia is now a free democracy and Cuba is communist totalitarian. Economic prosperity is being ginned up there with new daily flights. Change is always difficult!

Cited:

1. Taylor, A, September 17, 2015. Washington Post, Worldviews. Obama’s Nobel peace prize didn’t have the desired effect, former Nobel official reveals. Retrieved on August 18th, 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/17/obamas-nobel-peace-prize-didnt-have-the-desired-effect-former-nobel-official-reveals/.
2. Puddington, A and Roylance, T. 2016. Freedom House. Overview Essay: Anxious Dictators, Wavering Democracies. .
3. Held, D and Ulrichsen, K. February 26, 2014. Open Democracy. The Arab Spring and the changing balance of global power. Retrieved august 21, 2016 https://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/david-held-kristian-coates-ulrichsen/arab-spring-and-changing-balance-of-global-power.
4. Kettler, August 21, 2016. Bio. Malala Yousafzai Biography. Retrieved August 21,2016 http://www.biography.com/people/malala-yousafzai-21362253