What countries practice free market economy?

Answer 1

Historically, a fully free market has never existed. Most "free market" economies are "mixed."

To expound on the above, a "true free market" is one where there is no government involvement whatsoever - that is, no regulations or laws of any sort. The only role of a government in a TFM is to provide a common currency, and to enforce contracts.

For fairly obvious reasons, a TFM is a really, really bad idea. It inevitably allows for the exploitation of the poor and less powerful by those who have more wealth or power. Actually, that's not a strong enough statement. A TFM requires that those with more power and wealth abuse those below them, and quickly leads to almost total concentration of wealth in a tiny minority of hands.

Consequently, all countries which use a Free Market form of economy also impose some level of regulation upon it, to remove the worst excesses. The level of government intervention in a Free Market economy varies from country to country, but allcountries employ some form of regulation.

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Many commonwealth countries, like Australia, England, and other parts of Western Europe run on a free market economy.

Even countries before considered to be state-controlled (Russia and it's former possessions, China, ect. are in 'transition economies', which means they are changing from central economies to pure lazziez faire (another term for free market, translates from french into "Let do" or more broadly "Leave it alone".)

Although all countries imply laws and regulations on what's legal or not for distribution, the state, for example cannot intervene with legal trade between one man and another.

Philosophically, it's a fair and human way to exchange labor, time and money from one to another. A free market allows the potter to get his food, and the hunter his bowls through these means. A question to ask yourself is... should there be a middle man in these transactions? Should a corporation suck up the earnings of both men under the guise of 'income tax'? Sorry if it's a long answer, but basically you can never have too many nations without true FM.

To reiterate the first answer's point: no True Free Market economy currently exists. What we often refer to as a Free Market is what economists call a "mixed" market - some level of regulation as to allowable economic behavior (including some level of price subsidy/fixing for certain goods or markets), combined with the free market style of ordinary transactions.

Laissez-faire is a type of free market system, not a synonym for one.

It has been found that a completely laissez-faire system (which is often what is referred to when one speaks of a "True" free market) leads to serious societal problems, which is why all countries adopting a Free Market economy have chosen some form of regulation to counter these problems. A combination of regulation and a free market trading system is what economists call a Mixed Market Economy.

For more information about what a "Free Market", "Market Economy", and "Mixed EconomY", take a look at the three Wikipedia links below. In particular, the one on "Market Economy" points out the different subtypes being used.

Answer 2

In terms of Economic Theory, there are really only two forms of national economy currently in use in the world today: Planned, and Market. Planned economies have government direction of production and heavy regulation of consumption; market economies allow for self-driven economic activity (though there may be degrees of government regulation or involvement).

Planned economies are in no way considered a "free market", so all countries using that form of economy would not be an answer to this question. However, the Planned Economy system has been thoroughly discredited as a working system, and thus, I can't actually think of any country that an Economist would currently categorize as a Planned Economy.

Market economies are the big catch-all of pretty much any country in the world, currently. All forms of Market economy use the "free market" model for micro-economic activity - that is, transactions for most thing are run on the supply/demand model of free trade. However, a Market economy as a whole has different levels of government involvement, which can run from government ownership of certain industries and infrastructure, to welfare or social programs, and always include some level of regulation of allowed economic activity (such as pollution controls, monopoly or market manipulation bans, etc.). The level of government involvement in the economy helps define what type of Market economy an Economist would consider the country. The vast majority of current counties have a Mixed Market economy.

When a layperson speaks of a "free market economy", that usually can be taken to include anything that an Economist considers a Market Economy, which means, all countries in the world right now, except those which have no (practical) functioning government (e.g. Yemen, Somalia, D.R.C.). That is, unless the country is in some form of civil war, or a practical state of anarchy, the country uses some form of Market Economy.

If one wanted to be stricter, we could say that "free market" refers only to those forms of Market Economy which have low levels of government ownership of industry. ALL economies currently have very considerable amounts of regulation, and significant social welfare systems, so it is difficult to differentiate between them based on those characteristics.

Countries using a Market Economy which have lower levels of government ownership of industry or infrastructure: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa, Mexico, Germany.

Countries with a mid-level amount of government ownership: France, Spain, Italy, Russia, South Korea, Brazil.

Countries with a higher level of government ownership: Cuba, Venezuela, People's Republic of China, Vietnam.

The preceding lists were examples, and not meant to be a comprehensive list.

Do note that some people, when they say "Free Market", are implying a "True Free Market" type, also known as a Laissez Faire economy. This is an extreme form of free market, where government involvement in the economy (in any form) is virtually non-existent. No country currently uses a True Free Market type of economy, for the simple reason that established governments do not like to give up their power.

Answer 3

The United States of America has a market economy.

Answer 4

A free market economy is an economy in which supply and demand is not interfered with by the government. An example of a country which practices this is Germany.

Answer 5

USA,japan,Colombia,south korea

operates in free market economy.

Europe operates in "mixed economy".

Answer 6

It seems that only Iran, N Korea and Cuba still have no Rothschild owned central bank.

Answer 7

No country has a free market economy. Always under capitalism the state interferes, eg by subsidising some industries, making investments and even owning some companies.

Answer 8

Germany, UK, United States, France,