Abstract
This paper studies the existence of spatial diffusion of civil liberty among neighboring countries. For that purpose, we first combine different exploratory space-time data analysis approaches to find that this phenomenon is spatially clustered and that a convergence process is at work among the world countries from 1985 to 2010, with a structural change by the end of the Twentieth century mainly due to the appearance of the Internet. Second, we specify a spatial autoregressive panel data model for a sample of 130 countries, for 1985–2000, and 172 countries, for 2000–2010. Results provide evidence for spatial diffusion of civil liberty, though it is not constant along this time span. The spreading rate is 0.34 in the first sub-period. After 2000, it reduces to 0.21; that is, countries only “catch” 21% of the average changes in their neighbors’ civil liberty levels. Additionally, religious culture, urban agglomeration and GDP explain the levels of civil liberties in the world.
Highlights
According to Berlin’s (1958) seminal article, civil liberty or “negative liberty” is the individual right to make decisions within a given vital space without interference
The most relevant result of our model is the clear and positive significance of the spatial diffusion of civil liberty across neighboring countries during the whole period, though some other interesting conclusions could be extracted from the control variables
Strong and significant is the appearance of the digital city on civil liberty that the world confronted a clearly structural change at the end of the Twentieth century, which causes a certain decline in the influence of the physical city on civil liberty in favor of the digital city
Summary
According to Berlin’s (1958) seminal article, civil liberty or “negative liberty” is the individual right to make decisions within a given vital space without interference. It defines the limits between the state and the individual and, within those limits, guarantees the right for human beings to not have their field of action invaded. We differ from all this literature by focusing on the spread of civil liberty, which is not the same concept as democracy or any other type of freedom (Aixalá and Fabro, 2009 and in a deeper analysis, Alfonso-Gil et al, 2014). There are no empirical studies on the spatial diffusion of civil liberty.
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