Freedom is no simple concept with ready-made solutions to society or policymaking. However, in order for us to understand and talk about freedom, we must understand power relations in society.
Among many theoretical approaches to freedom, political freedom can be viewed as a legal concept as well as practices to exercise freedom in relation to the state and other people in society. Famous distinction has been made by Isaiah Berlin (1969) who defines freedom as negative or positive in society. Negative freedom relates to freedom from coercive power or restrains placed upon individuals or communities, and positive freedom to exercise one’s own productive freedom. See this great summary on Berlin’s thought offered by Open University.
In governmental relations of the state and civil society, freedom is understood as civil and political liberties implemented by rule of law. These liberties are measured by many democracy indicators such as Freedom House or Transparency International. These indexes thus tell us what “level” of freedom a society has, and are always limited to specific indicators of freedom chosen by the index. Unfortunately, these indexes have shown an alarming global trend of increasing authoritarianism and a decrease of freedom and democracy.
Here at POLIFA, we are interested in novel ideas of collective or shared political freedom that could enable us to think and act in relation to our immediate present and future. This places our focus on freedom as thought and practice of joint political action.
Bibliography
Berlin, Isaiah (1969). Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford University Press.
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