In the course of the discussion of liberalism and neoliberalism, I happened across the Index of Economic Freedom, which purports to measure the degree of economic freedom available to people in different countries. The top two countries for 2003 were Hong Kong (a dictatorship) and Singapore (a one-party state where oppositionists are routinely prosecuted for defamation etc). The situation was even worse in 1995 when another dictatorship (Bahrein) held the number 3 spot. Japan, a democracy, but one where a single party has had a monopoly of power for decades held fourth spot. The idea that you need an authoritarian government to promote economic freedom certainly seems to appeal to the Heritage Foundation, which publishes the index.

Another notable thing about the 1995 list is that the leading countries have not exactly been star performers in the subsequent period.

Update 21/3 As a number of commentators have pointed out, I was arguing pretty sloppily in attributing to the Heritage Foundation the view that ‘you need an authoritarian government to promote economic freedom’. I withdraw this claim. A more soundly-based inference is that there is not much correlation between economic freedom (at least as measured by this index) and political freedom.