[quote=urbanrealtor]I challenge you to paint a large world-ranked economy that functioned on true free-market practice and had a functional democratic state.
For that matter I challenge you to name the biggest economy ever that fit those criteria.
Last I checked though, it is not a coincidence that liberal democracy (as in classical not contemporary liberalism) sprung up around the same time as industry. Democracy exists as a political check on capitalism. The free market is the opposite of democracy because it involves unequal voting. Two people’s “wealth votes” are by definition not equal.
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urbanr – good thoughts here.
I’d agree that there hasn’t been a true free-market economy. This doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t viable, just difficult to achieve.
The US during the industrial revolution, and Taiwan before the Chinese took over come to mind as getting close.
I’m not familiar with Taiwan – it was mentioned to me long ago by someone else. However, during the US industrial revolution, the problem was that there was not enough regulation and industry was allowed too much freedom, at the expense of individual rights.
Many people see “capitalism” and “the free market” as the same thing. They are related, but different.
Often times in a capitalistic society, regulation favors big business. Guess what – that isn’t a free market. Big businesses have abused the term “free market” by demanding “free market” conditions in their industry. They really don’t want a free market, they just want to be free to do what they want.
If big business is allowed to roll over individuals and those individuals’ rights are being violated, it ain’t a free market.
I see it simply – when the government tries to regulate the RESULTS of the economy instead of the TRANSACTIONS of the economy, the market is not a free market. When rights are upheld, contracts are enforced, and those who violate the rights of others are punished, it’s a free market.
Democracy is not the opposite of the free market. A dictatorship is. Democracy is a way of implementing free-market principals into a system of government, but democracy still assumes the gov. has the right to regulate results, so it is quite different from a free market.
