# Political freedom > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Political_freedom > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Political_freedom.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_freedom > Source revision: 1356045688 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Concept in history and political thought "Freedoms" redirects here. For other uses, see [Freedom](/source/Freedom_(disambiguation)). 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Politicians Jefferson Kołłątaj Madison Artigas Bolívar Broglie Lamartine Macaulay Kossuth Deák Széchenyi Cobden Mazzini Juárez Lincoln Gladstone Cavour Sarmiento Mommsen Naoroji Itagaki Levski Kemal Deakin Milyukov Lloyd George Brătianu Venizelos Ståhlberg Gokhale Rathenau Madero Einaudi King Roosevelt Pearson Ohlin Kennedy Trudeau Jenkins Balcerowicz Verhofstadt Obama Macron Zelenskyy Organizations Africa Liberal Network Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party Arab Liberal Federation Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats European Democratic Party European Liberal Youth International Alliance of Libertarian Parties International Federation of Liberal Youth Liberal International Liberal Network for Latin America Liberal parties Liberal South East European Network Renew Europe By country Africa Egypt Nigeria Senegal South Africa Tunisia Zimbabwe Asia Armenia Bangladesh China Hong Kong Cyprus Georgia India Iran Israel Japan Philippines South Korea Taiwan Thailand Turkey Europe Albania Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Moldova Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom Latin America Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Ecuador Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Venezuela North America Canada United States Oceania Australia New Zealand Related topics Anarchism Anti-authoritarianism Anti-clericalism Anti-communism Anti-fascism Anti-socialism Capitalism Centrism Economic freedom Humanism Individualism Illiberal democracy Liberal autocracy Liberal conservatism Liberal feminism Liberal internationalism Liberal socialism Liberal Marxism Liberalism and nationalism Libertarianism Left Right Liberalism portal Politics portal v t e **Political freedom**, also called **political autonomy** or **political agency**, is a central [concept](/source/Concept) in [history](/source/History) and [political thought](/source/Political_philosophy) and one of the most important features of [democratic](/source/Democracy) societies.[1] Political freedom has been described as freedom from [oppression](/source/Oppression)[2] or [coercion](/source/Coercion),[3] the absence of disabling conditions for an individual and the fulfillment of enabling conditions,[4] or the absence of life conditions of compulsion in society, such as economic compulsion.[5] Although political freedom is often interpreted [negatively](/source/Negative_liberty) as the freedom from unreasonable external constraints on action,[6] it can also refer to the [positive](/source/Positive_liberty) exercise of rights, [capacities](/source/Capability_approach) and possibilities for action and the exercise of social or group rights.[7] The concept can also include freedom from internal constraints on political action or speech such as social [conformity](/source/Conformity), consistency, or inauthentic behaviour.[8] The concept of political freedom is closely connected with the concepts of [civil liberties](/source/Civil_liberties) and [human rights](/source/Human_rights), which in democratic societies are usually afforded legal protection from the [state](/source/State_(polity)). ## Views Various groups along the [political spectrum](/source/Political_spectrum) hold different views about what they believe constitutes political freedom. [Left-wing](/source/Left-wing_politics) political philosophy generally couples the notion of freedom with that of [positive liberty](/source/Positive_liberty) or the enabling of a group or individual to determine their own life or realize their own potential. In this sense, freedom may include freedom from poverty, starvation, treatable disease, and oppression as well as freedom from force and coercion, from whomever they may issue.[9] According to [neoliberal](/source/Neoliberal) philosopher and economist [Friedrich Hayek](/source/Friedrich_Hayek), the "socialist argument" defined "individual liberty" as " 'freedom from' obstacles". He argued that this definition only "confused" and obscured the aim of "securing individual freedom", because it permitted a possible "identification of freedom with power." The subsequent "collective power over circumstances" misappropriated "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." Hayek maintained that once any possible "identification of freedom with power is admitted," a "totalitarian state" coalesced where "liberty has been suppressed in the name of liberty."[10] [Social anarchists](/source/Social_anarchists) see negative and positive liberty as complementary concepts of freedom. Such a view of rights may require utilitarian trade-offs, such as sacrificing the right to the product of one's labor or freedom of association for less racial discrimination or more subsidies for housing. Social anarchists describe the negative liberty-centric view endorsed by [capitalism](/source/Right_Libertarianism) as "selfish freedom".[11] Political philosopher [Alasdair MacIntyre](/source/Alasdair_MacIntyre) theorized freedom in terms of our social interdependence with other people.[12] Economist [Milton Friedman](/source/Milton_Friedman) argues in his book *[Capitalism and Freedom](/source/Capitalism_and_Freedom)* that there are two types of freedom, namely political freedom and [economic freedom](/source/Economic_freedom), and that without economic freedom there cannot be political freedom.[13] In his article "Why the Market Subverts Democracy", [Robin Hahnel](/source/Robin_Hahnel) takes issue with Friedman's concept of economic freedom, asserting that there will be infringements on the freedom of others whenever anyone exercises their own economic freedom. He argues that such infringements produce conflicts that are resolved through property rights systems, and therefore it is essential to decide what is a better or a worse property rights system, yet Friedman simply takes for granted the existing property rights and does not question them.[14] Political philosopher [Nikolas Kompridis](/source/Nikolas_Kompridis) posits that the pursuit of freedom in the modern era can be broadly divided into two motivating ideals, namely freedom as [autonomy](/source/Autonomy) or [independence](/source/Independence) and freedom as the ability to cooperatively initiate a new beginning.[15] Political freedom has also been theorized in its opposition to and a condition of power relations, or the power of action upon actions, by [Michel Foucault](/source/Michel_Foucault).[16] It has also been closely identified with certain kinds of artistic and cultural practice by [Cornelius Castoriadis](/source/Cornelius_Castoriadis), [Antonio Gramsci](/source/Antonio_Gramsci), [Herbert Marcuse](/source/Herbert_Marcuse), [Jacques Rancière](/source/Jacques_Ranci%C3%A8re) and [Theodor Adorno](/source/Theodor_Adorno). [Environmentalists](/source/Environmentalist) often argue that political freedoms should include some constraint on use of [ecosystems](/source/Ecosystem). They maintain there is no such thing, for instance, as freedom to pollute or freedom to deforest given that such activities create [negative externalities](/source/Negative_externalities), which violates other groups' liberty to not be exposed to pollution. The popularity of [SUVs](/source/Sport_utility_vehicle), [golf](/source/Golf) and [urban sprawl](/source/Urban_sprawl) has been used as evidence that some ideas of freedom and [ecological conservation](/source/Ecological_conservation) can clash. This leads at times to serious confrontations and clashes of [values](/source/Value_(personal_and_cultural)) reflected in advertising campaigns, e.g. that of [PETA](/source/PETA) regarding [fur](/source/Fur).[17] [John Dalberg-Acton](/source/John_Dalberg-Acton%2C_1st_Baron_Acton) stated: "The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities."[18] [Gerald C. MacCallum Jr.](/source/Gerald_C._MacCallum_Jr.) spoke of a compromise between positive and negative freedoms, saying that an agent must have full autonomy over themselves. In this view, freedom is a triadic relationship because it is about three things, namely the agent, the constraints they need to be free from and the goal they are aspiring to.[19] ## History [Hannah Arendt](/source/Hannah_Arendt) traces the conceptual origins of freedom to [ancient Greek](/source/Ancient_Greece) politics.[1] According to her study, the concept of freedom was historically inseparable from political action. Politics could only be practiced by those who had freed themselves from the necessities of life so that they could participate in the realm of political affairs. According to Arendt, the concept of freedom became associated with the Christian notion of [freedom of the will](/source/Free_will), or inner freedom, around the 5th century CE and since then freedom as a form of political action has been neglected even though, as she says, freedom is "the raison d'être of politics".[20] Arendt says that political freedom is historically opposed to [sovereignty](/source/Sovereignty) or will-power since in ancient Greece and Rome the concept of freedom was inseparable from performance and did not arise as a conflict between the will and the self. Similarly, the idea of freedom as freedom from politics is a notion that developed in modern times. This is opposed to the idea of freedom as the capacity to "begin anew", which Arendt sees as a corollary to the innate human condition of natality, or our nature as "new beginnings and hence beginners".[21] In Arendt's view, political action is an interruption of automatic process, either natural or historical. The freedom to begin anew is thus an extension of "the freedom to call something into being which did not exist before, which was not given, not even as an object of cognition or imagination, and which therefore, strictly speaking, could not be known".[22] ## See also - [Academic freedom](/source/Academic_freedom) - [Civil and political rights](/source/Civil_and_political_rights) - [Decentralization](/source/Decentralization) - [Dissident](/source/Dissident) - [Economic freedom](/source/Economic_freedom) - Freedom from [unreasonable searches and seizures](/source/Unreasonable_search_and_seizure), which is related to [right to privacy](/source/Right_to_privacy) - [Freedom House](/source/Freedom_House) - [Freedom of assembly](/source/Freedom_of_assembly) - [Freedom of association](/source/Freedom_of_association) - [Freedom of information](/source/Freedom_of_information) - [Freedom of movement](/source/Freedom_of_movement) - [Freedom of religion](/source/Freedom_of_religion) - [Freedom of speech](/source/Freedom_of_speech) - [Freedom of the press](/source/Freedom_of_the_press) - [Freedom of thought](/source/Freedom_of_thought) - [Global Social Change Research Project](/source/Global_Social_Change_Research_Project) - [Internet censorship](/source/Internet_censorship) - [Libertarianism (disambiguation)](/source/Libertarianism_(disambiguation)) - [List of indices of freedom](/source/List_of_indices_of_freedom) - [Negative and positive rights](/source/Negative_and_positive_rights) - [Political censorship](/source/Political_censorship) - [Political equality](/source/Political_equality) - [Political prisoner](/source/Political_prisoner) - [Political repression](/source/Political_repression) - [Right to keep and bear arms](/source/Right_to_keep_and_bear_arms) - [Scientific freedom](/source/Scientific_freedom) - [Suffrage](/source/Suffrage) - *[Two Treatises of Government](/source/Two_Treatises_of_Government)* ## Notes 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_1-1) Arendt, Hannah (1993). "What is Freedom?". *Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought*. New York: [Penguin Books](/source/Penguin_Books). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Young, Iris Marion (1990). "Five Faces of Oppression". *Justice and the Politics of Difference*. [Princeton University Press](/source/Princeton_University_Press). pp. 39–65. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Sandel, Michael (2010). *Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?*. [Farrar, Straus and Giroux](/source/Farrar%2C_Straus_and_Giroux). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Sen, Amartya (August 2000). *Development as Freedom*. [Anchor Books](/source/Vintage_Books). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0385720274](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0385720274). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** [Marx, Karl](/source/Karl_Marx). "Alienated Labour". *Early Writings*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** [Isaiah Berlin](/source/Isaiah_Berlin), *Liberty* (Oxford 2004). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** [Charles Taylor](/source/Charles_Taylor_(philosopher)), "What's Wrong With Negative Liberty?", *Philosophy and the Human Sciences: Philosophical Papers* (Cambridge, 1985), 211–229. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Ralph Waldo Emerson, "[Self-Reliance](http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20110323065722/http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm) 2011-03-23 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine)"; Nikolas Kompridis, "Struggling Over the Meaning of Recognition: A Matter of Identity, Justice or Freedom?" in *European Journal of Political Theory* July 2007 vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 277–289. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Flickschuh, K., 2007, *Freedom. Contemporary Liberal Perspectives*, Cambridge: Polity 1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Friedrich August von Hayek, "Freedom and Coercion" in David Miller (ed), *Liberty* (1991) pp. 80, 85–86. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Anarchism FAQ"](http://www.spunk.org/texts/intro/faq/sp001547/secF2.html#secf22) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20191006235510/http://www.spunk.org/texts/intro/faq/sp001547/secF2.html#secf22) 2019-10-06 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Alasdair MacIntyre, "The Virtues of Acknowledged Dependence", *Rational Dependent Animals: Why Humans Need the Virtues* (Open Court, 2001). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** Friedman, Milton (1962). [*Capitalism and Freedom*](https://archive.org/details/capitalismfreedo00frie). University of Chicago Press. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** Hahnel, R. (2009-03-01). "Why the Market Subverts Democracy". *American Behavioral Scientist*. **52** (7): 1006–1022. [CiteSeerX](/source/CiteSeerX_(identifier)) [10.1.1.563.8688](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.563.8688). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1177/0002764208327672](https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0002764208327672). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [56576412](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:56576412). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Nikolas Kompridis, "The Idea of a New Beginning: A Romantic Source of Normativity and Freedom" in *Philosophical Romanticism* (New York: Routledge, 2007), 32–59. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** Michel Foucault, "The Subject and Power" in Paul Rabinow and Nikolas S. Rose, eds., *The Essential Foucault*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** ["Fur Challenge: Unzip That Collar and Expose Cruelty | Action"](https://www.peta.org/action/fur-challenge/). PETA.org. 2016-02-09. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20220830010237/https://www.peta.org/action/fur-challenge/) from the original on 2022-08-30. Retrieved 2022-08-31. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** Acton, John D. (1907). [*The History of Freedom and Other Essays*](https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.164137). London: Macmillan. p. [4](https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.164137/page/n35). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** MacCallum, Gerald (July 1967). ["Negative and Positive Freedom"](http://mcv.planc.ee/misc/doc/filosoofia/artiklid/Gerald%20MacCallum%20-%20Negative%20and%20Positive%20Freedom.pdf) (PDF). *The Philosophical Review*. **73** (3). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20110125063309/http://mcv.planc.ee/misc/doc/filosoofia/artiklid/Gerald%20MacCallum%20-%20Negative%20and%20Positive%20Freedom.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2011-01-25. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** Hannah Arendt, "What is Freedom?", *Between Past and Future: Eight exercises in political thought* (New York: Penguin, 1993). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** Hannah, Arendt (1965). [*On revolution*](https://archive.org/details/onrevolution00aren_0/page/211) (Reprinted ed.). London: Penguin Books. pp. [211](https://archive.org/details/onrevolution00aren_0/page/211). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780140184211](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780140184211). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [25458723](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/25458723). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** Hannah Arendt, "What is Freedom?", p. 151. ## External links Wikiquote has quotations related to ***[Freedom](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Freedom)***. - Alberto Abadie (October 2004). ["Poverty, Political Freedom, and the Roots of Terrorism"](https://web.archive.org/web/20090930232627/http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~aabadie/povterr.pdf) (PDF). Harvard University and NBER. - ["Brief review of trends in political change: freedom and conflict"](https://gsociology.icaap.org/report/polsum.html). - ["Freedom: The Great Gift of the West"](https://histclo.com/cih/free.html). v t e Liberty Concepts Artistic freedom Cognitive liberty Free will Freedom of conscience Freedom of expression Freedom of Expression (book) Algeria Canada India South Africa Freethought Moral responsibility Personification of Liberty Libertas Negative liberty Positive liberty Rights Self-ownership Topfreedom By type Academic Civil Economic Financial Intellectual Internet Morphological Political By right Abortion Assembly Association Asylum Cannabis Choice Civil and political Clothing Death Digital Education Fair trial Family Freedom from discrimination Food Gun Health Housing Internet access Information Life Morphological Movement Personality Press Privacy Property Protest Religion Repair Resist Self-defense Sexual and reproductive health Silence Speech Thought To be forgotten Truth Water and sanitation Workers' right to access the toilet See also All men are created equal Anarchism Autonomy Beard and haircut laws by country Civil libertarianism Clothing laws by country Dancing ban Decriminalization of sex work Drug liberalization Human rights Left-libertarianism Legality of recording by civilians LGBTQ rights Libertarianism Liberty, equality, brotherhood Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness Photography and the law Photography Is Not a Crime Pornography laws by region Prostitution law Psilocybin decriminalization in the United States Right-libertarianism Self-determination Stanley v. Georgia Universal Declaration of Human Rights --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Political freedom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_freedom) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_freedom?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.