Welcome to Ideas for a Free Society
Ideas have consequences. They influence the political, economic and social systems that govern our actions and thereby affect the way we live our lives. Ideas have inspired many of the political and economic arrangements that have existed at different times in different places.
Some of these arrangements have promoted creativity, innovation, peace and prosperity, leading to improvements in quality of life and enabling people to fulfil their myriad needs and goals. Other political and economic arrangements have undermined creativity, inhibited innovation and lead to civil unrest, oppression, starvation, poverty and misery.
For most of history, in most places the latter type of arrangements prevailed and as a consequence the large part of humanity was poor, oppressed and miserable. Beginning around 1500, the political and economic arrangements in some Western European countries began to shift - and improvements in living standards began to be felt throughout those societies.
Over the course of the past two hundred years, the number of countries with such beneficial political and economic arrangements has gradually increased. As a result, this period has seen rapid improvements in technology and economic conditions. Meanwhile, the number of people living in abject poverty has been declining in absolute terms for fifty years in spite of a dramatic rise in the world population. Nevertheless, over a billion people continue to live in miserable circumstances.
This CD is designed for those who are interested in what these beneficial economic and political arrangements are that lead to economic growth and have the capacity to eliminate poverty. It does not pretend to provide a definitive answer but rather to point people in the right direction. The title of the CD, "Ideas for a Free Society," was inspired by the observation that the political and economic arrangements that seem to be most conducive to peace and prosperity are those that exist in free societies.
In such societies, there exist certain institutions that guarantee political, economic and social freedom, and those institutions are in turn underpinned by ideas. Such ideas have been explored by individuals from many different perspectives, starting with ancient Chinese, Roman and Greek philosophers and continuing to the present day. The reader will find that a rich intellectual debate about the nature of these ideas exists even among the authors of texts on this CD.
The contents are not intended to be a comprehensive review of the literature of the subject, which is enormous. Instead, the CD contains a selection of contributions by some of the primary scholars and thinkers who have developed ideas which relate to the free society. Their contributions explain some of the general intellectual concepts and challenges, and the application of these ideas to public policy. The Editors hope that the selections included on the CD will inspire readers to consider the advantages of the free society, to further investigate the wide array of literature on these topics, and even to put these ideas into practice.
Linda Whetstone - Editor
Eben Wilson - Editor
Ideas for a Free Society is a project of
International Policy Network
