Social:Town square test
Town square test is a threshold test for a free society proposed by a former Soviet dissident and human rights activist Natan Sharansky, now a notable politician in Israel. In his book The Case for Democracy, published in 2004, Sharansky explains the term: "If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a 'fear society' has finally won their freedom."[1]
Usage
The test became famous after George W. Bush endorsed the book[2] and Condoleezza Rice referenced it to characterize "a fear society" in her prepared remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 18, 2005:
The world should apply what Natan Sharansky calls the "town square test": if a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a "fear society" has finally won their freedom.[3]
Rice went on to identify Belarus , Burma, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Zimbabwe as examples of outposts of tyranny.[3]
See also
- Democracy
- Political freedom
- Free speech zone
References
- ↑ Sharansky, Natan; Dermer, Ron (2006), The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, Balfour Books, pp. 40–41, ISBN 978-0-89221-644-4
- ↑ "My Sharansky" by Chris Suellentrop
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Archived copy". p. 4. Archived from the original on 2006-03-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20060325002023/http://foreign.senate.gov/testimony/2005/RiceTestimony050118.pdf. Retrieved 2006-03-26.
External links
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