Friedman, Liberalism and the Meaning of Negative Freedom

In the ‘Introduction’ to Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman's stated intentions are to: (i) establish the role of competitive capitalism as a system of economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom; (ii) indicate the proper role of government in a free society; and (iii) return the term ‘liberal’ ‘… to its original sense – as the doctrines pertaining to a free man’ (1962, p. 6). In fact, Friedman accomplishes none of these things. This essay has three distinct, though related, objectives: first, to compare Friedman's position with the liberal alternative; second, to show why Friedman's position is more properly regarded as libertarian than liberal; and third, to assess the quality of Friedman's argument in its own right. My purpose is to demonstrate that Friedman overlooks the important liberal insight that the unrestricted accumulation of private propety may limit rather than promote individual freedom. This omission is crucial. Not only does it divorce Friedman's conception from liberalism, it also vitiates his case for economic freedom as a necessary condition for political freedom.