en English
Jun 18, 2026
Jeffrey Frankel
In 1776, Adam Smith and America’s founders envisioned an economy that allowed individuals to pursue their own material well-being, with minimal government intervention. Today, America’s Republican Party claims to be committed to restoring that laissez-faire ideal, even as they make a mockery of its animating principles.
CAMBRIDGE—Two hundred and fifty years ago, two momentous texts—the Declaration of Independence and Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations—embodied a set of liberal ideas widely associated with the Enlightenment. Much is made of how the men who championed these ideas fell short, not least by excluding much of the population from their purview. But these failings, however egregious, should not obscure just how groundbreaking the ideas were. In fact, they had been entirely absent from almost all previous civilizations.
