intertrendsМеждународные процессыInternational Trends / Mezhdunarodnye protsessy1728-27561811-2773AEFIR10.46272/IT.2025.23.3.82.4intertrends-971Research ArticleРЕАЛЬНОСТЬ И ТЕОРИЯREALITY AND THEORYИскажение рейтингов Freedom House* в зависимости от американского отношения к странамFreedom House* Ratings’ Distortion by US AttitudeРойсДиланRoyceDylan Payne

Ройс Дилан Пэйн – PhD, научный сотрудник Департамента международных отношений Факультета мировой экономики и мировой политики Национального исследовательского университета «Высшая школа экономики»

Москва

Dr Dylan Payne Royce – Research Fellow, School of International Affairs, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University

Moscow, 101000

dylanproyce@yandex.ruНациональный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики»РоссияHSE UniversityRussian Federation2025030420262334163Copyright © Ройс Д.P., 20262026Ройс Д.Royce D.P.Данная работа распространяется под лицензией Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.https://www.intertrends.ru/jour/article/view/971

Хотя ряд исследований уже фиксировал внешнеполитическую предвзятость рейтинга «Свобода в мире» организации Фридом Хаус* (Freedom House), данный индекс с заметной регулярностью продолжает использоваться в академических работах (в том числе в российской научной среде). В статье представляется количественное исследование в пользу того, что Фридом Хаус* институционально связан с политико-административным истеблишментом США, вследствие чего его оценки (претендующие на универсальную внешнеполитическую нормативность) могут быть подвержены систематическим искажениям, коррелирующим с внешнеполитическим отношением США к оцениваемым государствам. Далее предлагается уточнённая формула измерения «демократичности» на основе индекса Полити (Polity), а также усовершенствованный способ аппроксимации близости государств к США (и, соответственно, предполагаемого отношения США к ним) на базе данных о трансфертах вооружений и голосованиях в Генеральной Ассамблее ООН. В статье эти показатели используются для измерения эффекта американского отношения к стране на оценку её типа режима. В статье делается вывод, что отношение оказывает эффект, равный половине эффекта от реального типа режима. И эти эффекты почти уравниваются в последние годы. Искажение в отдельных случаях достаточно для того, чтобы переквалифицировать режим от демократии к авторитаризму и наоборот. Полученные результаты ставят под сомнение валидность индекса Фридом Хаус*, а также проблематизируют роль политической науки в универсалистских государствах как источника не только знания, но и легитимации и мотивации внешнеполитического поведения.

Although studies have already found Freedom House’s* Freedom in the World rankings to be geopolitically biased, the index remains in use by academia (including Russian academia) with surprising frequency. This article provides detailed and quantitative evidence that Freedom House* is essentially part of the US Government and US political establishment, and is thus in principle liable to issue moral judgements that are distorted by the US’s attitude towards the states under judgement. The article then develops a more accurate formula for calculating a state’s democraticness according to the Polity index, and also develops an improved method, based on arms transfers and UNGA voting, of approximating states’ alignment with the US (and thus presumed US attitude towards states). It then uses these metrics to measure the effect of US attitude on Freedom House’s* evaluations of states’ freedom/democracy. This bias is found to be about half as powerful as the effect of actual regime type, approaching equal size in more recent years. Its magnitude is sufficient to, in some cases, completely transform a state’s regime type, from very democratic to very authoritarian or (less commonly) vice versa. These findings cast grave doubt upon the validity of Freedom House* metrics and confirm the US’s status as a universalistic state whose application of its own Cosmopolitan-Liberal ideology is deeply flawed, and they problematize political science in universalistic states as not only (or at all) a source of knowledge, but also (or instead) an important source of legitimation and motivation for such states’ international behavior.

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The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest present.