Despite its manifest failures the narrative of neoliberalism retains its grip on the public
mind and the policies of governments all over the world. By this narrative less regulation and
more 'animal spirits' capitalism produces not only greater prosperity but more freedom for
individuals in society - and is therefore morally better. But in The Road to Freedom Stiglitz
asks whose freedom are we - should we be - thinking about? What happens when one person's
freedom comes at the expense of another's? Should the freedoms of corporations be allowed to
impinge upon those of individuals in the ways they now do? Taking on giants of neoliberalism
such as Hayek and Friedman and examining how public opinion is formed Stiglitz reclaims the
language of freedom from the right to show that far from 'free' - unregulated - markets
promoting growth and enterprise they in fact reduce it lessening economic opportunities for
majorities and siphoning wealth from the many to the few - both individuals and countries. He
shows how neoliberal economics and its implied moral system have impacted our legal and social
freedoms in surprising ways from property and intellectual rights to education and social
media. Stiglitz's eye as always is on how we might create the true human flourishing which
should be the great aim of our economic and social system and offers an alternative to that
prevailing today. The Road to Freedom offers a powerful re-evaluation of democracy economics
and what constitutes a good society-and provides a roadmap of how we might achieve it.
