The Freedom Barometer is an attempt by the Southeast and East Asian regional office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty to measure the degree of freedom in Asian countries from a liberal perspective.
Covering the countries of Southeast Asia (Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) as well as the countries of East Asia (China, Japan, North and South Korea and Taiwan), the Freedom Barometer examines the most dynamic economic region of the world.
It captures the notion of freedom in a three-pronged way by assessing political, legal and economic rights. There are thus three dimensions: political freedom, rule of law and economic freedom.
“Political freedom” comprises the elements “free and fair elections”, “absence of undemocratic veto-players” and “press freedom”. “Rule of law” subdivides into “independence of the courts and checks and balances”, “corruption” and “human rights protection”. “Economic freedom” deals with the “security of property rights”, “size of government expenditures, taxes and enterprises”, “regulation of credit, labour and business” and the “freedom to trade internationally”. The absence of the death penalty is another key factor in the analysis. This and the protection of property rights are major rallying points of liberals around the world.
Individual Asian countries are analysed in terms of their degree of freedom based on reputable sources. The results for the most part chime with other major indices, such as the Freedom House and the Economic Freedom of the World reports.