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 W. Bush endorsed the book [1] and Condoleezza Rice quoted the test in her remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [2]
[edit] References
- 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).
