ABSTRACT
This chapter describes first the general arguments for freedom and then the types of economic freedoms they can validly support. In the class of arguments that focus on the social value of freedom, the most popular version on offer, and the one most common in economic discussions, is some version of utilitarianism. In the individualistic class of arguments, two strands, fundamentally antagonistic to each other, must be distinguished. The consequentialist individualistic approach assumes that in a range of matters the individual knows best what is good or desirable for him. Adam Smith is often claimed as the intellectual godfather of economic freedom, or, as he called it, a state of ‘natural liberty’. The dominant view in economics before Smith was mercantilism: a system in which the government interfered in the most detailed ways to protect industries, to control entry into various occupations, and to control the production of various commodities.
