per Freedom House

Hi,

what does "per Freedom House" mean here? I'm confused.


“Today, more than a quarter century later, we must ask what has happened to that uplifting vision; why does it seem to be fading instead of becoming more clear? Why, , is democracy now “under assault and in retreat”?”

Source: Madeleine Albright. “Fascism.”

"Per" here means according to, and Freedom House is the name of an organisation "dedicated to the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world" (from their website). The capital letters indicate it is a proper noun.

I think it’s fair to say that this is principally American English usage? In British English (at least, in the UK – and to the best of my knowledge), it’s much more usual to say “as per”, and for its meaning to be closer to “in accordance with” than “according to”. A similar difference is the use of “as” in AE where in BE we would say “such as”.

As you can no doubt tell, I’m not entirely confident about this. 👁 Big Grin :D

It doesn't sound great to me either, not because it's wrong but because it's poor style in the context in my mind. If I were writing it, I would just say "according to".