Visualizing The Worrying Decline Of Freedom Around The World


Tyler Durden's picture

The 20th century was a bull market for literacy, freedom, prosperity, health, and technology.

As a result of these gains, wealth has increased exponentially, and world poverty is now at all-time lows. Life expectancy continues to improve in most countries, global literacy is near 90%, and there are well over 100 democracies throughout the planet.

But, as VisualCapitalist’s Jeff Desjardins notes, not every positive trend can keep going forever. Sometimes things regress temporarily, only to be corrected later on. Other times things change more fundamentally – and that regression can be the beginning of a newer, long-term reality.

The Decline of Freedom: An 11-Year Trend

According to the Freedom in the World 2017 Report, which scores countries annually on various levels of freedom, there have been recent setbacks in political rights and civil liberties in a number of “Free” countries. These newest declines are partially the result of populist and nationalist forces making significant gains in democratic states.

But Freedom House, the international watchdog organization that produces the annual report, says that this is not an isolated occurrence. In fact, based on their data and methodology, freedom has actually declined on a global basis for the last 11 years.

Here are the aggregate gains and declines in freedom for each year – you can see that declines have been outweighing gains since 2006.

11 Years of Decline

While the trend is clear, the most worrying part is that the biggest aggregate declines happened in the two most recent years. Is that a coincidence, or is the decline of freedom accelerating?

Here are the specific countries that have had the biggest declines in freedom over the last decade:

Largest Aggregate Declines Over the Last Decade

Countries like Yemen and Ethiopia, which are classified as “Not Free”, have lost further freedom. However, “Free” countries like Hungary or Nauru also lost 10 or more points in the index.

2016: Another Year of Setbacks

The biggest mover in 2016 was Turkey, a country that the Washington Post says is in a “permanent state of crisis”.

A failed coup attempt, the assassination of a Russian ambassador, trouble in bordering Syria, and economic crises have accelerated the march to authoritarianism in the country – and it’s had a 15-point decline of freedom as a result, according to Freedom House.

Biggest Movers in 2016

Hungary and Poland are among the Western democracies that lost significant points in 2016, but the report also has its crosshairs on the United States for 2017. It notes the U.S. as a “country to watch” this year because of the Trump administration’s approach to civil liberties, as well as a potential redefinition of the United States’ role in the world.

Here are where things stand as of now:

Map: World Freedom in 2017

For the whole report, which is a highly-recommended read, go here.

KOMMONSENTSJANE – MASS GRAVE CONTAINING INFANTS DISCOVERED IN IRELAND.


That this would happen in a Church sponsored or run home is beyond belief.

kommonsentsjane's avatarkommonsentsjane

You have to say a prayer – Will God forgive those who committed these evil deeds.  These were 800 unwanted babies who did not stand a chance at life – even though God gave them life.

A mass grave containing “significant quantities” of infants’ remains has been discovered at a former Catholic mother and baby home in western Ireland.

The discovery, announced by investigators Friday, follows a probe by a historian in 2014 who found the death certificates for nearly 800 children who died at the home in Tuam, County Galway, between its opening in 1925 and closure in 1961.

The government-appointed Mother and Baby Homes Commission said the remains were found in at least 17 of 20 underground chambers during excavations between November and February. The chambers appeared to be related to the treatment of sewage or waste water, it said.

A small number of the remains of up…

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KOMMONSENTSJANE -SEETHING PELOSI AND SCHUMER WHO ALSO MET WITH RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR CONTINUE HYPOCRISY ON SESSION


Pelosi like all Democrats think the are above the law.

kommonsentsjane's avatarkommonsentsjane

The Horn News

Nancy Pelosi’s hypocrisy on Sessions exposed

March 2, 2017

House Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been extremely vocal about her disapproval of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his alleged communication with Russia, but it’s seething in hypocrisy.

She released a statement Thursday declaring that Sessions must resign due to the accusation that he lied under oath during his confirmation hearing.

But there’s one major thing Pelosi is obviously choosing to forget.

Previous Attorney General Eric Holder was accused of lying to Congress in 2012 during the President Barack Obama-era scandal of Fast and Furious, in which guns that were meant to help dismantle drug cartels in the United States ended up in the hands of drug dealers in Mexico, and were later traced back to hundreds of murders.

While there were swaths of politicians calling for Holder’s resignation after it became clear that he had lied about…

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KOMMONSENTSJANE -YES, YES, THAT IS TRUE – BUT YOU ARE IN THE WRONG COUNTRY.


He was all of those and he is still working to wreck the country.

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mexico1

He forgot he had been sent back to Mexico and was still protesting.

President Nieto has done a lot for the people.  We can tell the difference in just the landscape of the country and the way people are dressed.  The only thing is the people’s wages need to be elevated.  Change is hard when  you don’t know whether it is going to be good or bad.

America experienced a hard past eight years – Obama was and is not an American – he hated Americans because he did not have the values of Americans and did not believe in law and order and the Constitution and was a thief.

kommonsentsjane

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One of the World’s Worst Ecological Disasters


This is a real disaster.

Russia and The 2016 Election – A Complete and Total “Nothingburger”…


Yesterday we highlighted a tongue-in-cheek outline about a transparent foreign official campaigning in the U.S. against Hillary Clinton to benefit Donald Trump, ie. Nigel Farage. The reason for the…

Source: Russia and The 2016 Election – A Complete and Total “Nothingburger”…

trump-34

Gang members in country illegally kidnap 3 girls in Houston, kill one in satanic ritual, police say – Chicago Tribune


Scum like these need to be rounded up an executed.

Mexican Senator: We’ll Stop FIGHTING TERRORISM If Trump Builds The Wall | The Joe Pags Show | News Radio 1200 WOAI


Hey we could send all the Muslims to Mexico it would be better for them as its warmer kind of like where most of them came from.

Watters’ World: The left and President Trump edition


Apparently it is not hard to find idiots on the street.

Tom Perez: Russia Rigged the Election by Exposing How DNC Rigged the Election


I still not think it was Russia Julian Assuage claims he didn’t get it from the Russians and Julian has never been proved wrong.