Over the last two centuries, as we all know, capitalism has spread throughout the world and, at the
same time, the level of political freedom has risen as well, albeit unsteadily. The relationship between
these two trends has been, for the most part, a relatively closed topic for serious analysis1 since
Friedman (1962, pp. 9–10) wrote his oft-cited words when analyzing the ‘‘intimate connection
between economics and politics’’ and the fact that ‘‘only certain combinations of political and
economic arrangements are possible’’: