Introduction

“The point of calling attention to progress is not self-congratulation but identifying the causes so we can do more of what works.” -Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now (2018) ¹

In his November 2020 essay Political Freedom and Human Prosperity, Stanford University professor Larry Diamond concluded that democracy “is the best system for delivering human prosperity.”

Moreover, Diamond wrote that “almost all of the world’s most prosperous countries (save those that came upon a windfall of natural resource wealth) are democracies.” Economic freedom and private property, he emphasized, are “preconditions for political freedom” and “a crucial bulwark against an overweening state and eventual political tyranny.” ² Diamond also pointed out that more than 80 percent of the most economically free countries are democracies. Conversely, nearly 80 percent of the most economically unfree nations are authoritarian. This correlation is strongest for the world’s “most liberal democracies in political terms” as they “generally have the freest economies.” ³

Diamond’s writing needs to be committed to memory by lawmakers and political leaders worldwide if they aim to enrich the lives of the people they aim to serve as public officials. Free societies make our lives easier, healthier, and safer by providing the goods, services, and economic opportunity that improve the human condition. Critically, free economies offer the surest pathway to make the world a better place for future generations.

Free societies make our lives easier, healthier, and safer by providing the goods, services, and economic opportunity that improve the human condition. Critically, free economies offer the surest pathway to make the world a better place for future generations.

Economic freedom, defined in more detail below, brings all sorts of residual benefits with respect to the protection of our civil and political liberties.

A country’s commitment to the principles of economic freedom increases wealth and the available resources to invest in environmental protection and to invest in technological progress. Free economies incentivize environmental stewardship by allowing citizens to have well-defined and legally protected property rights. Economic freedom provides the foundation for the private sector to produce more goods even as people use fewer resources. Open, competitive markets more flexibly meet the needs of consumers, including consumer demand for environmentally friendly products. As this Free Economies are Clean Economies report lays out, understanding the relationship between economic freedom and environmental stewardship is essential to human flourishing and to addressing the world’s great environmental challenges, including climate change. One of those residual benefits is a cleaner environment.

A country’s commitment to the principles of economic freedom increases wealth and the available resources to invest in environmental protection and to invest in technological progress. Free economies incentivize environmental stewardship by allowing citizens to have well-defined and legally protected property rights. Economic freedom provides the foundation for the private sector to produce more goods even as people use fewer resources. Open, competitive markets more flexibly meet the needs of consumers, including consumer demand for environmentally friendly products. As this Free Economies are Clean Economies report lays out, understanding the relationship between economic freedom and environmental stewardship is essential to human flourishing and to addressing the world’s great environmental challenges, including climate change.

1. Larry Diamond, Political Freedom And Human Prosperity, Hoover Institution, November 18, 2020, https://www.hoover.org/research/political-freedom-and-human-prosperity[↩]
2. Ibid.[↩]
3. Ibid. Diamond relied on The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom and the Freedom in the World survey conducted by Freedom House to quantify this relationship.[↩]