BMJ  2004;329 (18 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7480.0-g

Editor's choice

Please Santa, bring me freedom

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Freedom has become the political buzzword of the 21st century. George Bush's agenda is to bring democracy and freedom to the rest of the peoples of the world, while his own are slaves to work, crippled by personal debt, and trapped in loneliness or loveless relationships—the shackles of the rich. Now that the surviving Afghanis and Iraqis are enjoying the benefits of Western freedoms, what will this mean for their health? No empirical studies have explored the relation between the extent of freedom allowed by political regimes and the effect on a nation's health—until now.

Carlos Alvarez-Dardet and colleagues use freedom as a proxy for democracy in their ecological study that covers 98% of the world's population (p 1421). One hundred and seventy countries are classified as free, partially free, or not free, according to a freedom rating devised by Freedom House, a non-profit making, independent organisation promoting . . . [Full text of this article]

Kamran Abbasi, acting editor

(kabbasi@bmj.com)


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