Town square test

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Town square test is a threshold test for a free society proposed by a former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, now a notable politician in Israel.

The test is found in Sharansky's book, The Case for Democracy, and it reads:

• 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.

The test became famous after George Bush endorsed the book ^[1] and Condoleezza Rice quoted the test in her remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ^[2]

[edit] References

1. ^ "My Sharansky" by Chris Suellentrop
2. ^ Condoleezza Rice testimony

• Natan Sharansky, Ron Dermer, The Case for Democracy. The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, (2004, ISBN 1-58648-261-0, hardcover) (2006, ISBN 0-89221-644-1 paperback).

[edit] External links

• Town Square Test in Oxford, England