Opinion
By Cato Institute
11-27-23
INTRODUCTION
Political and cultural polarization has led many Americans to “vote with their feet” to find communities and states more amenable to their views and values. Of course, when they do so, these foot voters often rely on an intuitive sense of where they will find their own promised land. Their assumption often seems to be that partisanship is a good proxy for the type of regime and community they want to live in. In other words, they look to how red or blue the state is during national and statewide elections. However, while partisanship is an important reflection of what a place might be like, it doesn’t necessarily reflect the quality of governance and the more specific picture of the state and local policies they’ll have to live under. States of similar partisan hue can differ greatly in their efficiency, corruption, and respect for freedom. That is where we come in.
We began this project to fill a need: Freedom in the 50 States was the first index at any level to measure both economic and personal freedoms and remains the only index to do so at the state level. We also strive to make it the most comprehensive and definitive source for economic freedom data on the American states.
This study ranks the American states according to how their public policies affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. The 2023 edition updates and expands on the six previous editions of Freedom in the 50 States. It examines state and local government intervention across a wide range of policy categories—from taxation to debt, from eminent domain laws to occupational licensing, and from drug policy to educational choice.
For this new edition, we have added several more policy variables while continuing to improve the way we measure land-use regulation and occupational licensing. Our time series now covers the 22 years in the period 2000–2022. Finally, we continue to explore the causes and consequences of freedom with detailed, up-to-date methods.
Read the full article here: Freedom in the 50 States 2023 | Cato Institute
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
