The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual ranking maintained by the Heritage Foundation. Through a variety of factors and measures, it aims to determine the level of economic freedom across the world. The following is from the Foundation’s website, describing their definitions:
Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please. In economically free societies, governments allow labor, capital, and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.
Azadism interprets that last line as the ability to uphold the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP) as a vital component in maintaining a free and fair market. Economic freedom is just a particular emphasis on freedom in general since a society can not be free without also being economically free. Through this freedom, innovation and human ingenuity can remain unrestricted as people can decide to live their lives in the way that they chose for themselves, as opposed to state coercion. However much a state trends towards freedom, the greater the benefit in terms of prosperity and human rights. This index helps understand the key components to consider when assessing the types of policies to employ to maximise these conditions and avoid tyranny and an erosion of human freedom.
For more information about the index, please see their website:
Link: 2021 Index of Economic Freedom | The Heritage Foundation
Raw: https://www.heritage.org/index/about
The index measures economic freedom by splitting it into 4 sections, namely:
Their annual report contains a section on the methodology that further details each of these measures. Let’s assess how Azadism views each category and what it aims to increase or reduce.
