Source Freedom House, Comparative Survey of Freedom 1998, Washington, D.C., 1998.

Definition As defined by Freedom House, freedom encompasses two sets of characteristics grouped under political rights and civil liberties. Political rights enable people to participate freely in the political process. In this case, political process refers to the system by which the polity chooses the authoritative policy makers and attempts to make binding decisions affecting the national, regional or local community. A system is genuinely free or democratic to the extent that the people have a choice in determining the nature of the system and its leaders. Civil liberties are the freedoms to develop views, institutions and personal autonomy apart from the state.

Notes For each country and year a composite freedom rating is shown. The composite score for freedom is rated between 2 and 14. Countries are placed in three broad categories based on these scores: free: 2-5, partly free: 6-10; and not free: 11-14. Regional averages are not weighted.

Source Freedom House, Comparative Survey of Freedom 1998, Washington, D.C., 1998.

Definition As defined by Freedom House, freedom encompasses two sets of characteristics grouped under political rights and civil liberties. Political rights enable people to participate freely in the political process. In this case, political process refers to the system by which the polity chooses the authoritative policy makers and attempts to make binding decisions affecting the national, regional or local community. A system is genuinely free or democratic to the extent that the people have a choice in determining the nature of the system and its leaders. Civil liberties are the freedoms to develop views, institutions and personal autonomy from the state.

Notes This table shows a breakdown of the composite freedom scores (1990-1997) as listed in table 6.1. For each country and year the political rights and civil liberties scores are shown. The 1997 freedom rating lists the composite freedom rating based on both rating criteria - political rights and civil liberties. Regional averages are not weighted.

Source The Heritage Foundation, The Index of Economic Freedom 1998, Washington, D.C., 1998.

Definition As defined by the Heritage Foundation, economic freedom refers to the absence of government coercion or constraint on the production, distribution, or consumption of goods and services.

Notes Each country has been given an overall economic freedom score based on the average of 10 individual factor scores. These factors are rated on a scale from 1 to 5: factors rated with a 5 signify a 'least free' rating and factors rated with a 1 signify a 'most free' rating. The Heritage Foundation treats the 10 factors as equally important to the level of economic freedom in any country. As such, the factors are not weighted. The factors are as follows: 1) Trade policy: based on average tariff rates; 2) Taxation Policy: based on income and corporate tax rates; 3) State Intervention in the Economy: based on government consumption as a percentage of GDP and size of the state-owned sector; 4) Monetary Policy: based on average inflation rate; 5) Capital Flows and Foreign Investment: based on an assessment of the limitations or supports for foreign investment; 6) Banking Policy: based on a sliding scale that measures the relative openness of a country's banking system; 7) Wage and Price Controls: based on an assessment of the relative degree to which the government controls wages and prices; 8) Property Rights: based on an assessment of the government's protection of private property rights; 9) Regulation: based on the perceived burden of regulation, levels of corruption, and uniformity of application; 10) Black Market: based on an estimate of the size of the black market as a percentage of GDP. Regional averages are not weighted.

Sources Women's suffrage, etc: United Nations, WISTAT CD-ROM, 1994. Ministerial and Chamber representation: United Nations, Human Development Report, 1996 and 1998.

Notes a) adult male suffrage was introduced under British colonial administration in 1959, although members of the electorate satisfying certain property qualifications also received a second vote. Women were granted the right to vote in 1962, and by 1964 all property qualifications had been abolished; b) universal adult suffrage was granted in 1953; prior to this women became eligible to sit in the Legislative Council in 1945; c) the Constitutions of 1939, 1948 and 1950 indicated that a law would determine when women would be granted the right to vote. That right was established by the Electoral Law of 1950 and recorded in the Constitution of 1955; d) female suffrage was established in 1941 based on various conditions, including level of education. All conditions were abolished in 1946; e) in some provinces women were given the right to vote and to stand for election at an earlier date; f) literate women were granted the right to vote and to be elected in 1938. These privileges were extended to all women in 1952; g) women were granted the right to vote and stand for election at the municipal level in 1931 and at the legislative and presidential level in 1949; h) voting is mandatory for all literate citizens between 18 and 65 years of age' I) the U.S. Constitution does not mention sex with regard to the right to stand for election to the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Presidency or the Vice-Presidency, referring only to "members" or "persons.