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Overview essay

TODAY’S AMERICAN: HOW FREE?
By Arch Puddington and Thomas O. Melia
How free is today’s American? The state of freedom within the United States has been a
matter of considerable contention, especially in the years since September 11, 2001.
Some elements of President George W. Bush’s counterterrorism effort—such as the
monitoring of domestic telecommunications and the detention and interrogation of
suspected terrorists—have drawn criticism from the public as well as multiple and ongoing
challenges in the courts and by Congress. These concerns, coupled with other, long-
standing critiques of the American system, have led some to ask whether Americans are
facing an erosion of the rights and freedoms that are central to our national identity.
In the following pages, Freedom House presents its views on the state of freedom in the
United States. In addition to addressing the effects of recent counterterrorism programs on
civil liberties, it examines crucial topics including religious freedom, immigration, race
relations, academic freedom, equality of opportunity, criminal justice, property rights,
corruption, the political process, and freedom of expression and the press.
Having undertaken this examination over many months, Freedom House concludes that
today’s American is quite free. The United States in 2008 remains a society in which
political rights and civil liberties are widely though not universally respected. Challenges to
those freedoms by government officials or other actors encounter vigorous and often
successful resistance from civil society and the press, the political opposition, and a
judiciary that is mindful of its role as a restraint on executive and legislative excess. Indeed,
the dynamic, self-correcting nature of American democracy—the resilience of its core
institutions and habits even in a time of military conflict—is the most significant finding
of Today’s American: How Free?
The study draws three broad conclusions that go to the heart of both the strengths of the
American system and the challenges confronting it.
The United States has been relatively successful in managing the inevitable tensions of a
society characterized by substantial racial, ethnic, and religious diversity. Unlike the
European democracies, for instance, America has been a destination for immigrants
throughout its history. Indeed, it has been defined by its continually changing demography.
The country’s ability to receive and integrate tens of millions of non-Europeans in recent
decades is an impressive testament to the flexibility, fairness, and pragmatism of the
American system. One might consider the United States to be the world’s first truly
globalized nation, given the origins of its people and its increasing economic and
communications integration with their many homelands.
Nevertheless, America’s comparative success in creating a multiracial and, in a sense,
multinational society should not obscure the very real problems associated with such
diversity. Racial minorities and immigrants are central to practically every issue that
confronts the country today, including the difficult relationship between African Americans
and the criminal justice system, the debate over the role of Muslims in American society,
and the recurring controversy over illegal immigrants. Racial and religious differences give
rise to demagogues on all sides. Angry arguments about “controlling our borders” and
affirmative action are vivid reminders that pluralism makes hard demands on the
institutions of free societies. The tensions and debates over the status of minorities and

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