Valuing Freedom and History in the Middle East: A Review of Mazinani’s ‘Full Freedom’ Model

Zep Kalb

doi:10.22151/politikon.26.1

Authors

Zep Kalb University of Tehran

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.26.1

Keywords:

full freedom, Freedom House, Human Development Index, Middle East and North Africa, political development, socio-economic development

Abstract

This paper qualitatively compares Mazinani’s model for the measurement of freedom, the called Full Freedom model, with the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Freedom of the World Index (FWI) and examines the advantages and disadvantages of using this model for the measurement of freedom in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The particularity of historical trajectories in the MENA will be held against the HDI and FWI. Then, shortcomings in Mazinani’s model for the measurement of freedom will be assessed in relation to this model’s dependency on its two competitors.

Author Biography

Zep Kalb, University of Tehran

Zep Kalb, from Antwerp, Belgium, is currently an MA student at the University of Tehran. He completed his BA at the SOAS, University of London in 2013 with a First-Class Honours in Economics and Persian. His MA thesis will be on the production of political discourse in religious academia in Iran. He is interested in revolutionary politics, class, religion and discursive formations in the Middle East. He also works as columnist for the Financial Tribune, an English-language newspaper distributed in Iran.