Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman

Chapter I

The Relation between Economic Freedom and
Political Freedom
IT IS WIDELY BELIEVED that politics and economics are separate and largely
unconnected; that individual freedom is a political problem and material
welfare an economic problem; and that any kind of political arrangements
can be combined with any kind of economic arrangements. The chief
contemporary manifestation of this idea is the advocacy of “democratic
socialism” by many who condemn out of hand the restrictions on individual
freedom imposed by “totalitarian socialism” in Russia and who are
persuaded that it is possible for a country to adopt the essential features of
Russian economic arrangements and yet to ensure individual freedom
through political arrangements. The thesis of this chapter is that such a view
is a delusion, that there is an intimate connection between economics and
politics, that only certain combinations of political and economic
arrangements are possible, and that in particular, a society which is socialist
cannot also be democratic, in the sense of guaranteeing individual freedom.
Economic arrangements play a dual role in the promotion of a free
society. On the one hand, freedom in economic arrangements is itself a
component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end
in itself. In the second place, economic freedom is also an indispensable
means toward the achievement of political freedom.
The first of these roles of economic freedom needs special emphasis
because intellectuals in particular have a strong bias against regarding this
aspect of freedom as important. They tend to express contempt for what
they regard as material aspects of life, and to regard their own pursuit of
allegedly higher values as on a different plane of significance and as
deserving of special attention. For most citizens of the country, however, if

Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman