'Trading Tyranny for Freedom, How Open Markets Till the Soil for Democracy'

This third article highlights a key point about open markets and good governance. The articles mentions how since the aftermath of September 11, the subsequent debate on how to prevent further disputes in the international system from transforming into political violence has often mentioned that expanding trade, especially with and among less developed countries, is a tool for encouraging democracy and respect for human rights around the world. The reasoning is not new, but nevertheless needs to be put clearly - that “increased trade and economic integration promotes civil and political freedoms directly by opening a society to new technology, communications, and democratic ideas. Economic liberalization provides a counterweight to governmental power and creates space for civil society. And by promoting faster growth, trade promotes political freedom indirectly by creating an economically independent and political aware middle class”.

With this in mind are we to assume that as trade and globalization have spread to more and more countries in recent years, so too have democracy and political and civil freedoms? All too often, we glance over the fact that the most economically open countries today are more likely to enjoy full political and civil freedoms as those that are relatively closed

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