Which countries have made the greatest progress toward becoming free societies? Although no single measure is capable of answering this question, The Economic Freedom of the World provides useful country rankings that compare numerous aspects of economic freedom.

J. R. Clark is the Scott Probasco Professor in Private Enterprise at the University of Tennessee.
James D. Gwartney (1940–2024) was Professor of Economics, holder of the Gus A. Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair, and Director of the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education at Florida State University.
Robert A. Lawson is the Jerome M. Fullinwider Endowed Centennial Chair in Economic Freedom at Southern Methodist University and Director of the O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.
Economic FreedomInternational Economics and DevelopmentPhilosophy and Religion
Other Independent Review articles by J. R. Clark
Summer 2022 Academic Entrepreneurship in Sometimes Hostile Environments: James Buchanan and the Virginia School of Political Economy
Fall 2011 Shrinking Leviathan: Can the Interaction Between Interests and Ideology Slice Both Ways?
Spring 2004 Global Warming and Its Dangers
Other Independent Review articles by Robert A. Lawson
Fall 2002 How to Be Human Though an Economist