Two Faces of Academic Freedom: External and Internal Threats

This working paper examines growing threats to academic freedom worldwide, distinguishing between external constraints imposed through state laws and regulatory interventions and internal pressures arising from institutional culture and self-censorship within academia. Drawing on the Varieties of Democracy Institute’s Academic Freedom Index and cross-national survey data from political scientists in over 100 countries, Norris analyzes how democratic backsliding, legal restrictions, and social pressures shape scholarly freedom and viewpoint diversity. The paper argues that external legal constraints often generate indirect chilling effects that encourage self-censorship, with important implications for liberal democracy, higher education governance, and academic inquiry.