ArgumentThe Comparative Survey of Freedom, first published by Freedom House in 1973, is now the most widely used indicator of democracy by both academics and the U.S. government alike. However, literature examining the Survey’s origins is virtually nonexistent. In this article, I use archival records to challenge Freedom House’s retrospective account of the indicator’s creation. Rather than the outcome of a scientific methodology by multiple social scientists, the Survey was produced by a single political scientist, Raymond Gastil, according to his own hunches and impressions. How, then, did this indicator rise to such prominence? I argue that the Survey’s notoriety can be attributed to its early promotion in both political science and American foreign policy decision-making, as well as the fact that it fit the dominant scientific and political paradigms of the time.

中文翻译：

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将自由的比较调查历史化：追踪一个有影响力的指标的社会轨迹

争论自由之家于 1973 年首次出版的《自由比较调查》现在是学术界和美国政府使用最广泛的民主指标。然而，研究调查起源的文献几乎不存在。在本文中，我使用档案记录来挑战自由之家对指标创建的回顾性描述。该调查不是由多名社会科学家采用科学方法得出的结果，而是由一位政治科学家雷蒙德·加斯蒂尔根据他自己的预感和印象进行的。那么，这个指标是如何变得如此突出的呢？我认为调查的恶名可以归因于它在政治科学和美国外交政策决策中的早期推广，