What do Rwanda, Brazil, Texas, Peru, Mexico, and Panama all have in common?

The State of Economic Freedom, 

Part 2: Success Stories

By The Editors

Earlier this summer, the Bradley Foundation convened a panel of distinguished individuals on the occasion of the Foundation’s awards ceremony in Washington. All the panelists were past recipients of the Bradley Prizes given for “strengthening the institutions, principles, and values that nurture and sustain the American Experiment and the West.” In the first installment of this two-part series, we excerpted their responses to a question posed by moderator Clint Bolick about the state of economic freedom here and abroad. In this installment, we excerpt their responses to a question about economic freedom success stories around the globe and the lessons we can learn from them.

- The Editors

Clint Bolick: If you could point to a single state or country as a success story over the past ten years, what would it be, and what are the lessons that we could learn from them?

Gary Becker: Rwanda experienced a genocide about a decade ago, and perhaps a third of the population was killed. Since 2002, however, Rwanda has turned things around and has been growing about 6 to 7 percent per year. It is one of your high growth countries. It’s landlocked and has no natural resources. So how have they done it? I met recently with the president of Rwanda. Now, he’s not a full democrat, but he has the right attitude. He’s done it in three ways. One, there’s no longer this ethnic fighting. There is a greater emphasis on the rule of law – not as much as what we have here, but a greater emphasis. And finally, there is a greater role for private enterprise. He was proud to say the private sector produces about half of their output. Now, we would say that’s still too small, but ten years ago, it was perhaps a tenth of their output, so that is big progress. And a further development that is close to my heart is their great investment in education, not for a small elite, but for a widespread education with minimum schooling legislation that is actually being enforced. They started with six years of required education and they have moved to eight. So what’s the result: a very poor country that has come up very well.

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The State of Economic Freedom 

in the United States and the World, Part 1

By The Editors

The developing world is increasingly embracing economic freedom, and reaping the benefits. So why are the United States and the EU heading in the opposite direction?

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Read here Part 1 - www.american.com