Political freedom (also known as political
autonomy or political agency) is a central
concept in history and political thought and
one of the most important features of democratic
societies.
Political freedom was described as freedom
from oppression or coercion, the absence of
disabling conditions for an individual and
the fulfillment of enabling conditions, or
the absence of life conditions of compulsion,
e.g. economic compulsion, in a society.
Although political freedom is often interpreted
negatively as the freedom from unreasonable
external constraints on action, it can also
refer to the positive exercise of rights,
capacities and possibilities for action and
the exercise of social or group rights.
The concept can also include freedom from
internal constraints on political action or
speech (e.g. social conformity, consistency,
or inauthentic behaviour).
The concept of political freedom is closely
connected with the concepts of civil liberties
and human rights, which in democratic societies
are usually afforded legal protection from
the state.
== Views ==
Various groups along the political spectrum
naturally differ on what they believe constitutes
true political freedom.
Left-wing political philosophy generally couples
the notion of freedom with that of positive
liberty, or the enabling of a group or individual
to determine their own life or realize their
own potential.
In this sense, freedom may include freedom
from poverty, starvation, treatable disease
and oppression as well as freedom from force
and coercion, from whomever they may issue.
Classical liberal Friedrich Hayek criticized
this as a misconception of freedom: [T]he
use of "liberty" to describe the physical
"ability to do what I want", the power to
satisfy our wishes, or the extent of the choice
of alternatives open to us [...] has been
deliberately fostered as part of the socialist
argument[.]
[T]he notion of collective power over circumstances
has been substituted for that of individual
liberty.
Anarcho-socialists see negative and positive
liberty as complementary concepts of freedom.
Such a view of rights may require utilitarian
trade-offs, such as sacrificing the right
to the product of one's labor or freedom of
association for less racial discrimination
or more subsidies for housing.
Social anarchists describe the negative liberty-centric
view endorsed by capitalism as "selfish freedom".Anarcho-capitalists
see negative rights as a consistent system.
Ayn Rand described it as "a moral principle
defining and sanctioning a man’s freedom
of action in a social context".
To such libertarians, positive liberty is
contradictory since so-called rights must
be traded off against each other, debasing
legitimate rights which by definition trump
other moral considerations.
Any alleged right which calls for an end result
(e.g. housing, education, medical services
and so on) produced by people is in effect
a purported right to enslave others.Some notable
philosophers, such as Alasdair MacIntyre,
have theorized freedom in terms of our social
interdependence with other people.In his book
Capitalism and Freedom, American economist
Milton Friedmanargues that there are two types
of freedom, namely political freedom and economic
freedom.
Friedman asserted that without economic freedom
there cannot be political freedom.
This idea was contested by Robin Hahnel in
his article "Why the Market Subverts Democracy".
Hahnel points out a set of issues with Friedman’s
understanding of economic freedom, i.e. that
there will in fact be infringements on the
freedom of others whenever anyone exercises
their own economic freedom and that such infringements
can only be avoided if there is a precisely
defined property rights system—which Friedman
fails to provide or specify directly.According
to political philosopher Nikolas Kompridis,
the pursuit of freedom in the modern era can
be broadly divided into two motivating ideals,
namely freedom as autonomy or independence
and freedom as the ability to cooperatively
initiate a new beginning.Political freedom
has also been theorized in its opposition
to and a condition of power relations, or
the power of action upon actions, by Michel
Foucault.
It has also been closely identified with certain
kinds of artistic and cultural practice by
Cornelius Castoriadis, Antonio Gramsci, Herbert
Marcuse, Jacques Rancière and Theodor Adorno.
Environmentalists often argue that political
freedoms should include some constraint on
use of ecosystems.
They maintain there is no such thing, for
instance, as freedom to pollute or freedom
to deforest given that such activities create
negative externalities, which violates other
groups' liberty to not be exposed to pollution.
The popularity of SUVs, golf and urban sprawl
has been used as evidence that some ideas
of freedom and ecological conservation can
clash.
This leads at times to serious confrontations
and clashes of values reflected in advertising
campaigns, e.g. that of PETA regarding fur.
John Dalberg-Acton stated: "The most certain
test by which we judge whether a country is
really free is the amount of security enjoyed
by minorities".Gerald C. MacCallum Jr. spoke
of a compromise between positive and negative
freedoms, saying that an agent must have full
autonomy over themselves.
It is triadic in relation to each other because
it is about three things, namely the agent,
the constraints they need to be free from
and the goal they are aspiring to.
== History ==
Hannah Arendt traces freedom's conceptual
origins to ancient Greek politics.
According to her study, the concept of freedom
was historically inseparable from political
action.
Politics could only be practiced by those
who had freed themselves from the necessities
of life so that they could participate in
the realm of political affairs.
According to Arendt, the concept of freedom
became associated with the Christian notion
of freedom of the will, or inner freedom,
around the 5th century CE and since then freedom
as a form of political action has been neglected
even though, as she says, freedom is "the
raison d'être of politics".Arendt says that
political freedom is historically opposed
to sovereignty or will-power since in ancient
Greece and Rome the concept of freedom was
inseparable from performance and did not arise
as a conflict between the will and the self.
Similarly, the idea of freedom as freedom
from politics is a notion that developed in
modern times.
This is opposed to the idea of freedom as
the capacity to "begin anew", which Arendt
sees as a corollary to the innate human condition
of natality, or our nature as "new beginnings
and hence beginners".In Arendt's view, political
action is an interruption of automatic process,
either natural or historical.
The freedom to begin anew is thus an extension
of "the freedom to call something into being
which did not exist before, which was not
given, not even as an object of cognition
or imagination, and which therefore, strictly
speaking, could not be known".
== See also ==
== Notes ==
== External links ==
Alberto Abadie (October 2004).
"Poverty, Political Freedom, and the Roots
of Terrorism" (PDF).
Harvard University and NBER.
"Brief review of trends in political change:
freedom and conflict".
"Freedom: The Great Gift of the West".
