Opinion

Jay Ambrose: Free-market idea sprouts in 3rd World

Think of them as intellectual guerrillas, people armed with great ideas about private property and free markets. And imagine what they can do to help win the war against terrorism - the war for civilization - as they fight the good fight in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. I am talking about people who run newly emerging think tanks in these scattered parts of the world and who are preaching the blessings of liberty and teaching others about the only way to achieve enduring prosperity. That way, agrees Ozlem Cagalar Yilmaz of Turkey, is "market liberalism," an economic system built around private enterprise. Yilmaz is general coordinator of the Association for Liberal Thinking - and its only full-time employee. But don't suppose the one-person staff means the Turkish think tank is proceeding with meager ambitions. Its job, Yilmaz says, her eyes afire with determination, is to help "change the mentality" of Turkish decision-makers, to take on "the official ideology." To that end, the think tank is working to translate into Turkish and publish 100 classic works of economic liberalism. Yilmaz, whose belief in free markets was provoked by an anti-communist professor at Hacettepe University in Ankara, insists a free-market system is compatible with the Muslim faith. At an Istanbul conference this coming January, she will be among those discussing economic liberalism with representatives from Muslim countries and making the case that its precepts are supported by the faith's sacred writings. See what I mean about intellectual guerrillas? Ideas have consequences, sometimes more power over time than bullets and bombs. If Yilmaz and the growing number of people like her can succeed in conveying the truth about marketplace economics, we will have change in the world's poorest countries. They will get much richer. They will get freer. They are likely to be more peaceful, less a threat to others and more amenable to representative forms of government than some presently are. Despite the evidence of history, there are those who would disagree, who would still argue that socialism is the only means of rescue for the wretched of the Earth. But where has socialism worked? In Scandinavian countries? Not really. The wealth of those relatively small, homogeneous lands has derived from free-market practices, and to the extent they abandon free trade and competitive, private enterprise, they abandon some of their wealth and liberty. A free-market economic system is scarcely sufficient in and of itself for all society's needs, but without it a society is more likely to breed radicals and terrorists and far less likely to afford its people a chance to pursue happiness as they understand it. Yilmaz is hardly alone in this fight. The number of think tanks in developing countries has been increasing dramatically over the past decade. I met Yilmaz at a Washington reception sponsored by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which supports and advises these think tanks. She was one of a number of think-tank officials in town because their organizations had recently received awards and grants through the Templeton Freedom Award Program recognizing excellence in furthering the cause of liberty. It seemed to me clear from talking to Yilmaz and others these groups are making themselves felt with sometimes small but meaningful programs, and I will give you one more example. This one is from Barun S. Mitra of the Liberty Institute in India. His group won an award in social entrepreneurship for a program in which poor high-school students from Himalayan communities are taught English and the principles of liberty at the same time. In making his case for these principles - an awards brochure defines them as "individual rights, the rule of law, limited government and free markets" - Mitra delivers this message: "You have nothing to lose but your poverty."