Laissez-Faire: The Economic Liberal Perspective

This chapter traces the historical rise of economic liberalism in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century England and in the United States and Europe in the twentieth century. We outline some of the basic tenets of capitalism, a focal point of liberal thought. Throughout the chapter, we also discuss the views about state-marketsociety relations of some of the most famous liberal political economists: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and recent supporters of globalization.