Liberty and problems of operationalisation

Since starting my PhD I’ve been grappling with the problem of security and liberty. You see, the original idea was to develop an index consisting of 6 indicators (3 for each dimension) to ‘measure’ developments in security and liberty. These indicators were to be used in thematic analysis. The results should have given me an impression of the policy field over time.

Of course it didn’t work. So I’ve been trying to scale down the approach.

The idea still is to capture the two dimensions, i.e. liberty and security, with indicators. The idea behind them has changed, however. I no longer want to use them as absolute categories, but as questions directing the interpretation.

I define liberty as follows:

‘Liberty is the scope of defensive mechanisms in place to protect the rights of the individual against intrusions by the state.’

This liberal definition is not helpful without a definition of what rights are concerned. Which rights an individual ought to have is the topic of a large number of discussions. As I deal with the fight against serious and organised crime, mainly freedom of the person, freedom of movement, privacy (or informational self-determination) and data protection are affected. The selection is influenced by the type of work carried out by the police (and other law enforcement bodies). They arrest and restrict the rights of those affected. Increasingly their work depends on data exchange and analysis.

Defensive mechanisms are established through constitutional principles (written or by doctrine), parliamentary laws, and shaped by historic developments. They can be exercised by different agents (courts, parliament, individuals) and with different degrees of bindingness (notice, possibility to respond, compulsion to respond). The change in this aspect of the definition lies at the heart of my analysis.

So in the end I have a matrix similar to the one below:

Court    Parliament    Individual
Constitution
Laws
Tradition

Intrusions by the state, finally, is what I understand as security. For a more understandable definition see the following post in the blog (coming soon).

This definition of liberty with its subcategories are applied to the policy development in Germany and the UK over a twenty year period. Basis for the analysis are relevant laws and regulations. Their development is analysed with respect to the indicators. It is not necessary that every subcategory be affected. Nor is it always possible to quantify the changes. The categories above are what I use to assess the change. I effectively interpret the liberty dimension.