The Theories of Milton Friedman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Theories of Milton Friedman - Essay Example Freedom constitutes of both economic and political freedom. (Friedman, 2002) For Friedman, the economic freedom does not just relate to the economic arrangements that are made between two parties voluntarily, but also is an indispensable means to the achievement of political freedom. Hence, freedom in this case might refer to a situation with a minimum government intervention so that the rights of any of the citizens are not in any way restricted and a free market is entailed. Appropriate as it might seem to Freidman, the notion of freedom he has may not exactly involve democracy. Democracy means the rule by people but when observed practically, the term is another word for majority rule. The basic of notion of democracy thus is that rational individuals may want to prefer freedom over absence of freedom and so the majority of the rational individuals would chose to vote for freedom. In this sense, the democracy may be linked to the freedom prescribed by Friedman. But on the other hand, a democracy may not coexist with a free system. This is so because total freedom may lead to anarchy as it would also include the freedom to restrict the freedom of others, a notion that is not followed in a democracy. As a result, the level and extent of freedom proposed by Friedman may not involve democracy. For Friedman, the distinction between a democratic or authoritarian government is irrelevant. This is so because his general characterization of the government is a body that intervenes in the economic system to restrict its freedom, and since economic freedom is related to political freedom, the freedom politically. It does not matter to him whether the country is ruled by one person or a group of people having the same ideas.