Middle East Freedom Index

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked 20 countries on 15 indicators of political and civil liberty.

The EIU scored each country on a 10-point scale, awarding one point for the least political freedom and 10 for the most.

The indicators used to score freedom in each country are: Election of head of government, Election of parliament, Fairness of electoral laws, Right to organise political parties, Power of elected representatives, Presence of an opposition, Transparency, Minority participation, Level of corruption, Freedom of assembly, Independence of the judiciary, Press freedom, Religious freedom, Rule of law, and Property rights.

The results came out as follows:

1. Israel 8.20
2. Lebanon 6.55
3. Morocco 5.20
4. Iraq 5.05
5. Palestine 5.05
6. Kuwait 4.90
7. Tunisia 4.60
8. Jordan 4.45
9. Qatar 4.45
10. Egypt 4.30 		11. Sudan 4.30
12. Yemen 4.30
13. Algeria 4.15
14. Oman 4.00
15. Bahrain 3.85
16. Iran 3.85
17. UAE 3.70
18. Saudi Arabia 2.80
19. Syria 2.80
20. Libya 2.05

[Source: BBC]

Published by

Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Mohamed Marwen Meddah is a Tunisian-Canadian, web aficionado, software engineering leader, blogger, and amateur photographer.

7 thoughts on “Middle East Freedom Index”

  2. very interesting…thanks for the post.
    Funny how Arabic states in general aren’t tolerent to the freedoms of their people yet they demand that freedom from from other countries.
    Jo

  3. K-pax, it’s interesting how they try to quantify freedom and how the results turn out. As you said, these results show some countries that live in chaos and disorder higher in freedom than others.
    I think the results aren’t precise but still are interesting to think about.

  4. Jo, well it’s not just Arab countries. Every country in the world talks on and on about freedom for it and its citizens when it certainly could do a lot better for its people.

  5. What’s funny is to see how Tunisia is ranked higher than Algeria, Egypt and the UAE LOL Yeah right! & Morocco better than Palestine! This is totally biased, you can’t apply statistics on freedom!
    Besides my personal opinion about Israel, I have to admit that among Israelis (jews and others) they have the best democracy in the region w/o conest.

  6. Hi, kpax has made a valid point in his post. FREEDOM is a complex thing which they try to reduce to one number. I have much sympathy with his view, but also understand the desire to rank countries according to various qualities, such as freedom, to simplify comparisons between them.

    The problem is that there are many KINDs of freedom: freedom to select a mate, freedom to say openly what you are thinking, freedom to move from place to place, and so on. And they try to wrap it up in one number!

    Consider their numbers only for the Maghreb:

    3. Morocco 5.20
    7. Tunisia 4.60
    13. Algeria 4.15
    20. Libya 2.05

    I am not surprised that Maroc leads the list, but some people may be surprised that Tunisia is second, especially after reading the stories of repression surrounding the WSIS, and other stories. I recently wrote a post in my blog (www.blogmaghred.blogspot.com) entitled: “A Different View of Tunisia” which discusses this in relation to an article that appeared in Yahoo.

    I doubt that anyone is surprised where Libya stands on the list!

    hale

  7. Hi, kpax has made a valid point in his post. FREEDOM is a complex thing which they try to reduce to one number. I have much sympathy with his view, but also understand the desire to rank countries according to various qualities, such as freedom, to simplify comparisons between them.

    The problem is that there are many KINDS of freedom: freedom to select a mate, freedom to say openly what you are thinking, freedom to move from place to place, and so on. And they try to wrap it up in one number!

    Consider their numbers only for the Maghreb:

    3. Morocco 5.20
    7. Tunisia 4.60
    13. Algeria 4.15
    20. Libya 2.05

    I am not surprised that Maroc leads the list, but some people may be surprised that Tunisia is second, especially after reading the stories of repression surrounding the WSIS, and other stories. I recently wrote a post in my blog (www.blogmaghred.blogspot.com) entitled: “A Different View of Tunisia” which discusses this in relation to an article that appeared in Yahoo.

    I doubt that anyone is surprised where Libya stands on the list!

    hale

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