Europe seems to have struck a fine balance between security needs in an age of terrorism and the individual rights of citizens, but it has fared less well
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Freedom in the World 200The Annual Survey oPolitical Rights & Civil LibertieArch Puddington General Editor Aili Piano Managing Editor Camille Eiss, Katrina Neubauer, Tyler Roylance Assistant Editors Freedom House Ł New York, NY and Washington, DRowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Ł Lanham, BoulderNew York, Toronto, Plymouth, U
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ROWMAN & LITTLEFEELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2008 by Freedom House All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Freedom in the world / Š1978New York : Freedom House, 1978Š v.: map; 25 cm.Š(Freedom House Book) Annual. ISSN 0732-6610=Freedom in the World. 1. Civil rightsŠPeriodicals. I. R. Adrian Karatnycky, et al. I. SeriesJC571 .F66 323.4’05Šdc 19 82-64204AACR 2 MARC- Library of Congress [84101ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-5896-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-5896-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-5897-7 (pbk.: alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-5897-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISSN: 0732-6610 Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesŠPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
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Contents Acknowledgments 1 Freedom in Retreat: 3 Is the Tide Turning? Arch Puddington 15 Introduction 16 Country Reports 795 Related and Disputed Territory Reports 860 Survey Methodology Tables and Ratings 879 Table of Independent Countries 881 Table of Disputed Territories 881 Table of Related Territories 882 Combined Average Ratings: Independent Countries 883 Combined Average Ratings: Related and Disputed Territories 884 Table of Electoral Democracies 886 The Survey Team 893 Selected Sources 899 Freedom House Board of Trustees 900 About Freedom House
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Findings of Freedom inFreedom in RetreatIs the Tide TurningArch Puddington The year 2007 was marked by a notable setback for global freedom. The decline, which was reflected in reversals in one-fifth of the world’s countries, was most pro nounced in South Asia, but also reached significant levels in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. It affected a substantial number of large and politically important countriesŠincluding Russia, Pakistan, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, and VenezuelaŠwhose declines have wider regional and global implications. Other countries experienced reversals after a period of progress toward democracy, including pivotal states in the Arab Middle East. While many more countries suffered declines than registered improvements, the degree of change reflected in some countries was modest, while in others the de cline was more substantial. The profile of world freedom as measured by the number of countries designated in Freedom in the World as Free, Partly Free, or Not Free changed little during the past year. There were, nonetheless, many and overwhelmingly nega tive changes within these broad categories. Furthermore, results for 2007 marked the second consecutive year in which the survey registered a decline in freedom, representing the first two-year setback in the past 15 years. In all, nearly four times as many countries showed significant declines during the year as registered improvements. Many countries that moved backward were already designated Not Free by the survey; there were, in other words, numerous examples of a worsening of already negative trends. In other cases, countries with recent records of improved democratic institutions were unable to sustain progress and gave clear signals of backsliding. As the year drew to a close, a series of events served as stark reminders of the perilous condition of freedom in certain parts of the world: Ł In Russia, parliamentary elections were held under patently unfair conditions. ŁDemocracy in Georgia, a key “color revolution” country, was sullied by the imposition of a state of emergency and a violent police crackdown on demonstrators. Ł In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in the context of a recent state of emergency, intense pressure on civil society and the judiciary, and rising terrorism by Islamic extremists. Ł In Kenya, hundreds were killed in rioting and mayhem in the wake of highly credible reports of vote rigging by the government in the country’s presidential election. 3
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4 Freedom in the WorldŠ2008 Civil conflict was an important contributing factor to this year’s negative trajectory in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The year also saw the intensification of an effort by authoritarian regimes to consolidate their power through the suppression of democratic opposition, civil society, and independent mediaŠa process also known as the pushback against democracy. Freedom of association suffered a setback on a global scale, as governments in various regions initiated policies to weaken or neutralize nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), human rights monitoring groups, and trade unions. Especially important in carrying out this assault on civil society were a group of market-oriented autocracies and energy-rich dictatorships that combine elements of a capitalist economy with sophisticated tech niques of political repression. These were among the principal findings of Freedom in the World 2008, Freedom House’s annual survey of political rights and civil liberties worldwide. Freedom in the WorldŠ2008 Survey The population ol the world as estimated in mid-2007 is 6,604.9 Partly Free: 1,185.3 million (18 percent of the world’s popumillion persons, who reside in 193 sovereign states. The lation) live in 60 of the states, level of political rights and civil liberties as shown compara tively by the Freedom House Survey is: Not Free: 2,391.4 million (36 percent of the world’s population) live in 43 of the states. Free: 3,028.2 million (46 percent of the woild’s population) live in 90 of the states. A Record of the Survey (population in millions) Year under WORLD Review FREE PARTLY FREE NOT FREE POPULATION Mid-1992 1,352.2 (24.83%) 2,403.3 (44.11%) 1,690.4 (31.06%) 5,446.0 Mid-1993 1,046.2 (19.00%) 2,224.4 (40.41%) 2234.6 (40.59%) 5,505.2 Mid-1994 1,119.7 (19.97%) 2,243.4 (40.01%) 2,243.9 (40.02%) 5,607.0 Mid-1995 1,114.5 (19.55%) 2,365.8 (41.49%) 2,221.2 (38.96%) 5,701.5 Mid-1996 1,250.3 (21.67%) 2,260.1 (39.16%) 2,260.6 (39.17%) 5,771.0 Mid-1997 1,266.0 (21.71%) 2,281.9 (39.12%) 2,284.6 (39.17%) 5,832.5 Mid-1998 2,354.0 (39.84%) 1,570.6 (26.59) 1,984.1 (33.58%) 5,908.7 Mid-1999 2,324.9 (38.90%) 1,529.0 (25.58%) 2,122.4 (35.51%) 5,976.3 Mid-2000 2,465.2 (40.69%) 1,435.8 (23.70%) 2,157.5 (35.61%) 6,058.5 Mid-2001 2,500.7 (40.79%) 1,462.9 (23.86%) 2,167.1 (35.35%) 6,130.7 Mid-2002 2,717.6 (43.8S%) 1,293.1 (20.87%) 2,186.3 (35.28%) 6,197.0 Mid-2003 2,780.1 (44.03%) 1,324.0 (20.97%) 2,209.9 (35.00%) 6,314.0 Mid-2004 2,819.1 (44.08%) 1,189.0 (18.59%) 2,387.3 (37.33%) 6,395.4 Mid-2005 2,968.8 (45.97%) 1,157.7 (17.93%) 2,331.2 (36.10%) 6,457.7 Mid-2006 3,005.0 (46.00%) 1,083.2 (17.00%) 2,448.6 (37.00%) 6,536.8 Mid-2007 3,028.2 (45.85%) 1,185.3 (17.94%) 2,391.4 (36.21%) 6,604.9 * The large shift in the population figure between 1997 and 1998 is due to India’s change in status from Partly Free to Free. A particularly worrying phenomenon that emerges from the findings is the negative impact of powerful autocracies on smaller, less powerful neighboring countries. Russia provides diplomatic and political support to a number of brutal dictatorships and autocratic regimes on its borders, including Belarus and states in Central Asia, and puts pressure on nearby governments, such as Estonia and Georgia, whose policies or leaders it disapproves of. Iran and, to a lesser extent, Syria have sup ported antidemocratic forces in Lebanon, Iraq, and the Palestinian Authority. Ven ezuelan president Hugo Chavez has attempted to export his authoritarian brand of
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Survey of Freedom 5 “21st Century Socialism” to other countries in South America, albeit with little success thus far. For its part, China has emerged as an impediment to the spread of democracy in East Asia and other regions, especially Africa. China has played a particularly negative role in Burma, where it sustains a brutal military dictatorship through economic and diplomatic support, and in North Korea, through its policy of forcibly returning those who flee the Pyongyang regime. In Africa, China provides various kinds of aid, including security assistance, to authoritarian countries and undermines the efforts of the United States, the European Union, and multilateral institutions to promote honest and transparent governance. New and unstable democracies continue to be plagued by a host of prob-The Global Trend lems stemming from a sharp and some-Year Under times shocking increase in violent crime, Review Free Partly Free Not Free often involving the narcotics trade, hu1977 43 48 64 man trafficking, and organized criminal networks and exacerbated by corrupt or 1987 58 58 51 ineffectual police, a poorly functioning 1997 81 57 53 judiciary, and vigilantism. While the impact of crime on the public’s faith in de2007 90 60 43 mocracy is a special problem in Latin America, it is also a growing phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asian coun tries like the Philippines. RESULTS FOR 2007 The number of countries judged by Freedom in the World as Free in 2007 stood at 90, representing 47 percent of the world’s 193 polities and 3,028,190,000 peopleŠ46 percent of the global population. The number of Free countries did not change from the previous year’s survey. The number of countries qualifying as Partly Free stood at 60, or 31 percent of all countries assessed by the survey, and they comprised 1,185,300,000 people, or 18 percent of the world’s total. The number of Partly Free countries increased by two from the previous year. Forty-three countries were judged Not Free, representing 22 percent of the total polities. The number of people living under Not Free conditions stood at 2,391,400,000, or 36 percent of the world population, although it is important to note that about half of this number lives in just one country: China. The number of Not Free countries declined by two from 2006. The number of electoral democracies dropped by two, and stands at 121. One Tracking Elecoral Democracy polity, Mauritania, a Muslim-majority country in Africa, qualified to join the Number of Year Under Electoral world’s electoral democracies in 2007. Review Democracies Developments in three countriesŠPhil1997 117 ippines, Bangladesh, and KenyaŠdisqualified them from the electoral democ2002 121 racy list. The decline of these countries 2007 121 is significant given their size and the fact
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6 Freedom in the WorldŠ2008 that two, Philippines and Kenya, were previously regarded as important additions to the democratic world and models for Asia and Africa. Two countriesŠThailand and TogoŠexperienced positive status changes, with both moving from Not Free to Partly Free. One territory, the Palestinian Authority, declined from Partly Free to Not Free. No country improved from Partly Free or Not Free to a designation of Free, or declined from Free to a designation of Partly Free or Not Free. At the same time, the number of countries that experienced negative changes in freedom without meriting a status change far outweighed those that underwent positive changes: 38 countries showed evidence of declines in freedom, while only 10 showed positive shifts. The year was notable for the failure of any of the more important repressive states to show signs of enhanced freedom. Likewise, not one of the countries that register the lowest possible scores in the Freedom House indexŠthe “worst of the worst”Šexhibited signs of improvement. This in itself represents a break from a trend, observable even in years when world freedom stagnated or declined, in which progress was registered in some of the world’s most tightly controlled dictatorships. IMPORTANT TRENDS 1. A resurgence of pragmatic, market-oriented, or energy-rich dictatorships. Most visibly in Russia and China, but also in other parts of the world, governments are trying to harness the power of the marketplace while maintaining closed political systems. Strengthened by petroleum-based riches or capital amassed through long term trade surpluses, these autocracies are unapologetic and increasingly assertive, at home and abroad, in declaring that the paradigm of rights-based governance as the international community has long understood it is not relevant for the 21st century. Diplomatic and political efforts to undermine norm-setting bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are advancing as a consequence, with implications for the fate of freedom in a growing number of countries. 2. Decline in freedom of association. As repressive regimes move to strengthen their authority and eliminate sources of political opposition, they increasingly tar get human rights organizations, advocates of government transparency, women’s rights groups, representatives of minority groups, and trade unions. While the countries of the Middle East have the worst record on adherence to established standards for freedom of association, Africa and the non-Baltic countries of the former Soviet Union also have poor scores for associational rights. 3. Weak governance. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s countries rank as electoral democracies, but many score poorly on government effectiveness and accountability. Corruption, lack of transparency, and concentration of power in the hands of the executive or nonelected forces represent major obstacles to the consolidation of democracy in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. 4. Islamic extremism. While the world has been spared terrorist attacks of the magnitude of 9/11, the violent actions of Islamic radicals remain an important challenge to freedom, both in Muslim countries and in the wealthy democracies. Terrorist violence remains a serious problem in Iraq, is a growing threat to freedom in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and continues to plague Algeria, Lebanon, and other countries
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