Monday, January 19, 2004
ECONOMIC FREEDOM AND POLITICAL FREEDOM Thanks to Freedom and Whisky for the link, the Heritage Foundation has just released its annual report on global economic freedom. In seventh place the UK has managed to hold on to one of the top places despite regulation-junkie Gordon Brown's tax increases.
The interesting question is of course the link between economic and political freedom. When you look the bottom of the heap there is little surprise in seeing that the most economically repressive state, North Korea, is also the politically most repressive to the point of insanity. Less clear is the situation when you look further up. The clearest indication being number one, Hong Kong, which in terms of political freedom lags far behind most countries in the economically "mostly free" category. So, one can conclude that economic unfreedom goes hand in hand with political repression, but it doesn't necessarily seem to work vice versa with economic freedom leading to political freedom. That might be worth a closer look.
The interesting question is of course the link between economic and political freedom. When you look the bottom of the heap there is little surprise in seeing that the most economically repressive state, North Korea, is also the politically most repressive to the point of insanity. Less clear is the situation when you look further up. The clearest indication being number one, Hong Kong, which in terms of political freedom lags far behind most countries in the economically "mostly free" category. So, one can conclude that economic unfreedom goes hand in hand with political repression, but it doesn't necessarily seem to work vice versa with economic freedom leading to political freedom. That might be worth a closer look.
