The year before I was born fewer than one in three countries in the world could be considered properly free. Today, according to Freedom House, nearly one in two can be classified as free. Despite the grinding stupidity and tedious witlessness that so often dominates our domestic politics we should remember that this is a great time to be alive.
In fact there have been few better eras in human history. This is a big claim but it’s justified given the expansion of liberty and opportunity across the planet these past 30 years. Of course there are exceptions and there remain many black holes of misery but the overall trend is clear. From Latin America to East Asia by way of Eastern Europe millions, no billions, of people lead more comfortable lives in more decent societies than seemed probable or even possible just 40 years ago. Even Africa, for all its troubles, is not uniformly without hope.
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James Walton
Anjelica Huston is comprehensively upstaged in the BBC’s new Agatha Christie
This transformation doesn’t have a single cause by any means but a good deal of it can be ascribed to the triumphs of liberal democracy (once thought something unique to western europe and the English-speaking world) and market capitalism.
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