Does legal freedom satisfy?

Area of Science:

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Economics

Background:

• Political conflicts often center on the extent of individual freedoms.
• Liberal democracies emphasize legal freedoms, rule of law, and civil rights.
• It remains unclear if legally guaranteed freedom translates to subjective satisfaction with freedom.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between legal freedom indicators and citizens' satisfaction with their freedom of choice.
• To determine if legal freedom is sufficient for satisfaction with freedom or if other factors play a role.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a panel-data approach analyzing 133 countries from 2008-2018.
• Related seven indicators of legal freedom to reported satisfaction with freedom of choice.
• Examined conditional associations by interacting legal freedom indicators with social trust.

Main Results:

• No robust baseline relationship was found between legal freedom indicators and satisfaction with freedom.
• The rule of law showed a positive, threshold-dependent relationship with satisfaction when moderated by social trust.
• Freedom of assembly's positive impact on satisfaction was amplified by higher GDP per capita and democratic political systems.

Conclusions:

• Formal legal institutions for freedom require complementary factors like social trust, economic development, and political systems to enhance satisfaction.
• Legal frameworks for freedom are insufficient on their own to ensure subjective well-being regarding freedom.
• The interplay between institutional, cultural, and economic factors is crucial for understanding satisfaction with freedom.