Comparative Survey of Freedom, 1972-1976

This data collection contains information gathered in five annual surveys that assessed the degree of freedom in 218 nations and dependencies from 1972-1976. The study was carried out under the auspices of Freedom House, New York City. The number of cases with data varies from year to year, due to annexation, amalgamation, or the addition of further territories to the roster. The data include assessments of the political and civil rights of the general population (using a seven-point scale, i.e., 1, most freedom, to 7, least freedom), an overall freedom rating for the country (using a three-point scale, i.e, free, partly free, and not free), and the direction in which this rating appeared to be moving. Surveys after 1972 have added variables that indicate whether a change in the evaluation since the previous survey was due to internal events in the country or to new information about existing conditions. Before 1973, only the presence or absence of change is noted. Thereafter, an increase in the number of coding categories enables the direction of the change to be recorded. The 1976 data include four additional variables applicable to 142 cases and provide information about the system of government and the economy of most of the nations studied. The rationale used in assigning the seven categories on the continuum of most to least freedom can be found in Appendix III of the codebook, including which civil and political rights were considered critical in order for a nation to garner each rating.

本数据集汇聚了自1972年至1976年间，由纽约市自由之家发起的五年年度调查所收集的信息，旨在评估218个国家和地区在政治及公民自由度上的程度。研究工作在自由之家的指导下进行。由于并吞、合并或新增领土等原因，每年数据案例的数量存在差异。数据涵盖了针对普通民众的政治与公民权利评估（采用七点量表，即1表示最大自由度，至7表示最小自由度），对国家的整体自由度进行评级（采用三点量表，即自由、部分自由和不受自由），以及该评级似乎呈现的趋势。1972年之后的调查增加了变量，用以指示自上次调查以来的评估变化是否由国内事件或对现有状况的新信息所导致。在1973年之前，仅记录变化的呈现与否。此后，编码类别的增加使得记录变化的方向成为可能。1976年的数据包括适用于142个案例的四个额外变量，提供了关于大多数研究国家政府体系和经济制度的信息。关于将自由度连续谱从最大至最小分配七个类别的依据，可在代码簿的附录III中找到，其中包括哪些公民和政治权利被视为获取每个评级的关键。