Unlocking potential

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Premier Wen Jiabao expressed his admiration for Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, written in 1759, before his better-known treatise The Wealth of Nations (1776). What the premier took away from the book is the idea that a society in which wealth is concentrated in a few hands will be unstable and immoral. Such a society, however, is more likely to be illiberal than liberal.

There are two organising principles of society: first, consent, the so-called voluntary principle, which relies on individual freedom and responsibility and, second, coercion, the use of force to command people and politicise economic life.

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