At the political level, the freedom of a country is associated with its sovereignty.
Freedom is an abstract concept that is difficult to define; in principle, the notion is linked to the faculty that every living being possesses to carry out an action according to its own will .
From the 18th century onwards, liberty began to be linked to other faculties or virtues, such as justice and equality . This social change was accompanied by the development of new forms of organisation of society and the emergence of political regimes that were previously unknown.
Scope and limits of freedom
A free person is not bound by the will of others in a coercive way . Freedom guarantees respect for the individual will and implies that each person must assume responsibility for his or her actions. Absolute freedom is known as libertinism , which inevitably leads to social disorder and the end of peace.
For example, a person can use his freedom to create a business and obtain, through commercial activity, the resources that allow him to survive. That freedom, however, is limited by law , which prohibits him from selling products that do not meet a series of requirements and forces him to pay taxes. These impositions, needless to say, exceed the subject's will; however, given the way in which human beings organize our lives, they do not infringe on his freedom.
In this context, freedom is understood as a certain autonomy . Each subject can make use of his or her self-determination to act, although always within a certain framework imposed at a social level.
Decolonization, which grants independence to a territory, grants it freedom.
Prohibitions that are accepted as reasonable
This brings to light a very particular issue: there is no such thing as absolute freedom . There are various positions on this matter, but none of them guarantee the possibility of maintaining our moral and ethical principles while breaking down our invisible barriers and acting with complete ease at every step. In these codes , invented by our species, lies the reason (which many consider irrefutable) for the limits of freedom.
Let's take as examples three prohibitions that most people think they understand or accept as fair and reasonable: we cannot take what belongs to others; we cannot have sexual relations with our parents or siblings; and we cannot kill another human being. Theft and murder are crimes punishable by the laws of each country, and incest can be viewed in different ways, but the morality to which we respond in our culture tells us that it is something repugnant and unnatural, something we would never do .
Freedom and the justice system
We do not enjoy absolute freedom because we prefer the comfort of having someone to organize our lives and protect us. If a wolf tries to snatch a piece of meat from its leader, the leader will remind it why it occupies that position in the pack; on the other hand, we humans entrust this type of situation to a justice system, the same one that we criticize negatively when we do not need it.
Trying to contrast this idea of the limits of freedom, one might think that it does not include those issues mentioned above, since it does not accept in its definition any act that harms another living being or that crosses the walls of morality that each nation has raised for centuries. It is important to remember that freedom is not a concept that we share with the rest of the species on the planet, but rather it is our invention and, if we so wish, we can assure that we are all absolutely free.
There are pacifist movements that fight for political freedom through non-violence.
The question of the individual
Individual freedom , on the other hand, must be protected by the State . No person may restrict the freedom of another; otherwise, the competent authorities must act to punish the person responsible.
Another analysis of freedom is linked to psychological or metaphysical questions. The essence of freedom, in a certain sense, can never be affected since it exists within every living being; no one can prevent another from thinking or feeling certain things.
Freedom and politics
Politics , as an activity aimed at organizing public affairs, determines the limits of freedom in different ways. In a State governed by the rule of law, freedom is limited and, at the same time, guaranteed by the Constitution .
Democracy is understood to be the system of government that allows citizens to live in freedom. People, for example, participate in decision-making through a representative government that must act in accordance with the law.
However, there are those who question what freedom a human being can have if he does not achieve a minimum level of quality of life or well-being, beyond citizen participation in political decisions. In other words: someone who sees his right to food, his right to health or his right to housing violated cannot be free.
This type of reasoning is often used by critics of capitalism . Defenders of this system, on the other hand, minimize this problem and focus on the curtailment of freedom that alternative regimes such as communism or even the utopia proposed by anarchism .
The freedom achieved by certain groups can also be specifically analysed. Feminist movements , for example, aim for the emancipation of women by ending sexist violence and gender inequality. There are also anti-racist movements, indigenous movements and movements of people with disabilities, among other social movements that promote the freedom of specific groups.