Laissez faire
Laissez faire is short for "laissez faire, laissez passer" a French phrase meaning to let things alone, let them pass. First used by the eighteenth century Physiocrats as an injunction against government interference with trade, it is now used as a synonym for strict free market economics.
The laissez-faire school of thought, or libertarianism, holds a pure capitalist view, that capitalism is best left to its own devices - that it will dispense with inefficiencies in a more deliberate and quick manner than any legislating body could. The basic idea is that less government interference makes for a better system.
Laissez faire (imperative) is distinct from laisser faire (infinitive), which refers to a careless attitude in the application of a policy, implying a lack of consideration, or thought.
Laissez-Faire economic theories where predominant in the late 19th and early 20th century. They fell into disrepute because of their failure to prevent World War I and then to prevent The Great Depression. In the wake of the rise of the USSR, laissez-faire economics assumed a stronger ideological edge, (See Hayek). In the post-war era, where state regulation and involvment in the economy, to no small extent as part of the Cold War reached a peak, anti-statist schools of economic thinking enjoyed a surge of interest and support. (See Monetarism, Supply-side_economics, and the Austrian School.)
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