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Freedom
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Political freedom is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression. Economic freedom is freedom to produce trade and consume any goods and services acquired without the use of force fraud or theft Freedom, or the idea of being free is a broad concept that Liberty, the freedom to act or believe without being stopped by unnecessary force Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the Freedom of association, is the Individual right to come together with other individuals and collectively Freedom of association is the Individual right to come together with other individuals and collectively express promote pursue and defend common interests thumb| |Broken Liberty Istanbul Archaeology Museum Civil liberties are freedoms that protect the Individual from the Government. Freedom of movement, mobility rights or the right to travel is a Human rights concept which is respected in the Constitutions of numerous Freedom Constitutional or statutory protections pertaining to freedom of the press Freedom of religion is the freedom of an individual or community in public or private to manifest religion or belief in teaching practice worship and observance Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without Censorship or Limitation. Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience and freedom of ideas) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact viewpoint The right of self-defense (also called alter ego defense, defense of others, defense of a third person) is the right for civilians acting on their Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable harmful or sensitive as determined by a censor Coercion (co-er-shion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way (whether through action or inaction by use of threats Children's rights are the Human rights of Children with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to the young including their Human rights refers to the "basic Rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled There are several Non-governmental organizations that publish and maintain assessments of the state of freedom in the world according to their own various definitions of Media Transparency is the concept of determining how and why Information is conveyed through various means The concept of negative liberty refers to freedom from interference by other people ||-||} Positive liberty refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill one's own potential as opposed to Negative liberty, which refers to freedom from The members of a free society would have full dominion over their public and private lives. The opposite of a free society would be a totalitarian state, which highly restricts political freedom in order to regulate almost every aspect of behavior. Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a concept used to describe Political systems where a State regulates nearly every aspect of public and private In this sense ‘freedom’ refers solely to the relation of men to other men, and the only infringement on it is coercion by men. ^[1]

Contents 1 Types 2 Views 3 External links 4 References

Types

The concept of political freedom is very closely allied with the concepts of civil liberties and individual rights. thumb| |Broken Liberty Istanbul Archaeology Museum Civil liberties are freedoms that protect the Individual from the Government. Most democratic societies are professedly characterized by various freedoms which are afforded the legal protection of the state. Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. Some of these freedoms may include (in alphabetical order):

• Anarchism
• Freedom of assembly
• Freedom of association
• Freedom to bear arms
• Freedom of education
• Freedom of movement
• Freedom of the press
• Freedom of religion
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of thought
• Intellectual freedom
• Sexual freedom
• Stochastic

Views

Various groups along the political spectrum naturally differ on what they believe constitutes "true" political freedom. Anarchism is a Political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all compulsory Government, i Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the Freedom of association, is the Individual right to come together with other individuals and collectively Freedom of association is the Individual right to come together with other individuals and collectively express promote pursue and defend common interests The right to keep and bear arms, RKBA, or right to bear arms is the concept that people individually or collectively have a right to Weapons Today this Freedom of education' incorporates the right of any person to manage their own education start a school or to have access to the education of their choice without any constraints Freedom of movement, mobility rights or the right to travel is a Human rights concept which is respected in the Constitutions of numerous Freedom Constitutional or statutory protections pertaining to freedom of the press Freedom of religion is the freedom of an individual or community in public or private to manifest religion or belief in teaching practice worship and observance Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without Censorship or Limitation. Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience and freedom of ideas) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact viewpoint Intellectual freedom is a human right as defined by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A sexual norm can refer to a Personal or a social norm Most cultures have social norms regarding sexuality, and define normal sexuality Stochastic (from the Greek "Στόχος" for "aim" or "guess" means Random. A political spectrum (plural Spectra) is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes

Friedrich Hayek famously noted that "liberty" and "freedom" have probably been the most abused words in recent history today. Friedrich August von Hayek CH ( May 8, 1899 March 23, 1992) was an Austrian British Economist

Milton Friedman observed that:

The essence of political freedom is the absence of coercion of one man by his fellow men. Milton Friedman (July 31 1912 November 16 2006 was an American Nobel Laureate Economist and Public intellectual. The fundamental danger to political freedom is the concentration of power. The existence of a large measure of power in the hands of a relatively few individuals enables them to use it to coerce their fellow men. Preservation of freedom requires either the elimination of power where that is possible or its dispersal where it cannot be eliminated. ^[2]

Those on the political left define freedom as the ability of the individual to realize one's own potential and pursuit of happiness. Freedom, in this sense, may include freedom from poverty, starvation, treatable disease, and oppression, as well as freedom from force and coercion, from whomever they may issue.

However Friedrich Hayek criticized this as a misconception of freedom:

the 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. Friedrich August von Hayek CH ( May 8, 1899 March 23, 1992) was an Austrian British Economist . . has been deliberately fostered as part of the socialist argument. . . Once this identification of freedom with power is admitted, there is no limit to the sophisms by which the attractions of the word ‘liberty’ can be used to support measures which destroy individual liberty, no end to the tricks by which people can be exhorted in the name of liberty to give up their liberty. It has been with the help of this equivocation that the notion of collective power over circumstances has been substituted for that of individual liberty and that in totalitarian states liberty has been suppressed in the name of liberty. ^[3]

Many social anarchists see negative and positive liberty as complementary concepts of freedom. Social anarchism, socialist anarchism, anarcho-socialism, anarchist socialism or Communitarian anarchism,(sometimes used interchangeably with

Some treat freedom as if it were almost synonymous with democracy, while others see conflicts or even opposition between the two concepts. Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system For example, some people argue that Iraq was free under Paul Bremer on the grounds that it was a rational, humanist, non-subjugating government, long before elections were held. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. Lewis Paul Bremer III (born September 30 1941 known as Paul Bremer and also nicknamed Jerry Bremer, is an American Diplomat. Others have argued that Iraq was free under Saddam Hussein because Iraq was not a colony, while a third claim is that neither dictatorial nor colonial rule in Iraq are examples of political freedom. Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti ( Arabic: ar صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي --> April 28 1937 &ndash December 30

Environmentalists often argue that political freedoms should include some constraint on use of ecosystems. Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and Social movement centered on a concern for the conservation and improvement of the environment. An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants animals and micro-organisms( Biotic factors in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical ( They maintain there is no such thing, for instance, as "freedom to pollute" or "freedom to deforest" given that such activities create negative externalities. In Economics, an externality is an impact on any party not directly involved in an economic decision The popularity of SUVs, golf, and urban sprawl has been used as evidence that some ideas of freedom and ecological conservation can clash. A sport utility vehicle ( SUV) is a generic marketing description for a rugged automotive vehicle similar to a Station wagon but built on a light-truck chassis Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its Suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area This leads at times to serious confrontations and clashes of values reflected in advertising campaigns, e. A personal and cultural value is a Relative ethic value, an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated g. that of PETA regarding fur. Fur is a body hair of any non-human Mammal, also known as the Pelage.

There have been numerous philosophical debates over the nature of freedom, the claimed differences between various types of freedom, and the extent to which freedom is desirable. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Determinists argue that all human actions are pre-determined and thus freedom is an illusion. Determinism is the philosophical Proposition that every event including human cognition and behaviour decision and action is causally determined Isaiah Berlin saw a distinction between negative liberty and positive liberty. Sir Isaiah Berlin, OM (6 June 1909 &ndash 5 November 1997 was a philosopher and historian of ideas regarded as one of the leading liberal thinkers of the twentieth century The concept of negative liberty refers to freedom from interference by other people ||-||} Positive liberty refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill one's own potential as opposed to Negative liberty, which refers to freedom from

In jurisprudence, freedom is the right to determine one's own actions autonomously ; generally it is granted in those fields in which the subject has no obligations to fulfill or laws to obey, according to the interpretation that the hypothetical natural unlimited freedom is limited by the law for some matters. Jurisprudence is the Theory and Philosophy of Law. Scholars of jurisprudence or legal philosophers hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature A right is a legal or moral Entitlement or Permission. Rights are of vital importance in theories of Justice and deontological ethics An obligation is a requirement to take some course of action whether legal or moral. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society

Joseph Garcia states his belief that freedom in politics is generally used as a governing tool: "For what we call freedom is given only to those who obey, it is then when you stand for what you believe and fight back against oppression you lose those freedoms, and when what is taken away should be your inalienable rights what choice does one have but to obey?"

External links

• Freedom House
• International Freedom of Expression Exchange
• Political Navigator Directory of major US related political sources

References

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