Economic growth without democracy. The Chinese model in the words of Milton Friedman
When the socialist recipes were at their maximum expansion, he defended the free market. While American intellectuals thought of "society", he was thinking as an individual . In a world of only Keynesians, he renewed liberal thinking by paving the way for Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain and Ronald Reagan in the United States. We are obviously talking about Milton Friedman, one of the greats of liberal thought and the Nobel Prize for economics in 1976.
In addition to the historic battles to defend the free market, civil liberties and economic liberties, the American economist was among the first to understand the growth potential of the Chinese economy.
The basis of success was not – as many think – the third way of "red capitalism", but on the contrary the gradual reduction of state intervention in the economic field.
Since the late 1970s, the introduction of Deng Xiaoping's market reforms – the privatizations of agriculture among them all – have consolidated the transition from a planned to a market economy, in which the private sector contributes today. for over 60 per cent of the Chinese GDP.
In the preface to the 2002 edition of "Capitalism and Freedom" , the Nobel laureate explains:
“[…] Numerous countries in Asia and Latin America, as well as many of the former satellite states of the Soviet Union, have adopted pro-market policies and downsized the role of the state. In all these cases, the increase in economic freedom has produced greater prosperity. Capitalism, competition and freedom are inseparable. "
This result was achieved with the progressive increase in economic freedoms, confirming the faith in the capacity for transformation that only the free market can have.
From a liberal point of view, Friedman himself believed that China's economic openness was not enough to open the way to the pantheon of Western democracies. His critique of the Chinese system focuses on the role of political freedoms:
“While economic freedom is a necessary condition for enjoying civil and political liberties; political freedom, however desirable it may be, is not a necessary condition for the establishment of economic and civil freedom. "
China has become the guest with whom the West must necessarily confront, but it must be observed with distrust: political freedoms and the lives of those who disagree can never be sacrificed. If for us Westerners all this is now taken for granted, the Chinese regime remains of a different opinion and has managed to make one of the most closed political systems in the world survive the opening of the economy to individuals.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/crescita-economica-senza-democrazia-il-modello-cinese-nelle-parole-di-milton-friedman/ on Sat, 13 Feb 2021 04:51:00 +0000.