MANILA -- No other philosophical or political idea is as contentious as the concept of freedom. All principal writings of political philosophers deal with the issue of freedom in one sense or another, leading to an enormous -- and at times confusing -- body of sources. Freedom defines the relationships among individuals and between individuals and the state. As shown by records of human discourse from ancient times to the present, these relationships have always been controversial.
Today we can differentiate between two main areas: political freedom and economic freedom. Nonetheless, they are interlinked. Empirical evidence shows that economic freedom has a positive impact on political freedom, and politically free societies tend to opt for a high degree of economic freedom. Anthropologists argue that freedom is something that every human being desires and wishes to have more of. This human desire for freedom has been the main driving force behind democratization.
Historically, modern liberal ideas emerged in Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries as an intellectual response to absolutism. Progressive writers advocated freedom of religion and religious tolerance, and promoted the freedom of expression, private property and free markets for labor and trade, just to mention only a few of the main concerns of those early times. Classical liberal literature prepared the ground for the revolutions that transformed the political and social landscapes in North America and Western Europe.