Fraser Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Economic Freedom of the World Index by James Gwartney and Robert Lawson
Fraser Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 1999
The Economic Freedom of the World Index is the culmination of a 15-year project the Fraser Institute began in 1984 to explore in a scholarly way the relationship between economic and political freedom. Based on the premise that economic freedom creates growth, the index ranks 115 countries based on 17 factors that measure infringements of basic economic freedoms, such as the freedom of exchange, the freedom to keep one’s earnings and freedom to own private property and use it for personal and commercial purposes.
The Economic Freedom of the World Index has garnered praise not only for its empirical demonstration of the relationship between economic freedom and prosperity, but also for its collaborative nature. In 1999 the project involved 53 public policy institutes around the world, many of which translate the documents into their native languages and actively promote the findings of the index in their own countries. The Economic Freedom Network was founded to bring together the institutes that publish the Index and provide them with a forum for ongoing discussions of economic freedom. The Economic Freedom Network also hosts a website, at which visitors from around the world access regularly updated Index data.
Unirule Institute, Beijing, China
The Future of Chinese Ethics by Yushi Mao
Jinan University Press, Guangzhou, China, 1997
Honorable Mention Award
The Unirule Institute’s The Future of Chinese Ethics was recognized with an Honorable Mention Award in 1999 for making important headway in examining the conditions under which freedom flourishes and communicating these lessons to an audience still living under communism.
The book addresses Chinese misconceptions about capitalism and the profit motive. As long as a communist ethic is guiding people’s behavior, defining what is right and what is wrong, author Mao Yushi argues, the market system cannot be successfully implemented. Seeking to combat decades of communist theory, which portrayed capitalism and profit seeking as evil, Mao first outlines the weaknesses of the communist position and then illustrates the virtues of markets and entrepreneurial activity. He develops a tool called ‘equal status’ to examine human action within the Chinese cultural context.
The book has enjoyed remarkable success within China. It made several bestseller lists in Beijing, and has been used as part of a training course organized by the local government in Shandong Province. In the United States, The Future of Chinese Ethics was presented to the National Security Council in preparation for President Clinton’s 1999 visit to China. It was also introduced to the Harvard China Club, a group of Chinese scholars in law, economics and political science, who are researching China’s reform process. Plans are underway for an English translation.
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