<P> In Capitalism and Freedom (1962), Friedman further developed Friedrich Hayek's argument that economic freedom, while itself an extremely important component of total freedom, is also a necessary condition for political freedom . He commented that centralized control of economic activities was always accompanied with political repression . In his view, voluntary character of all transactions in a free market economy and wide diversity that it permits are fundamental threats to repressive political leaders and greatly diminish power to coerce . Through elimination of centralized control of economic activities, economic power is separated from political power, and the one can serve as counterbalance to the other . Friedman feels that competitive capitalism is especially important to minority groups, since impersonal market forces protect people from discrimination in their economic activities for reasons unrelated to their productivity . </P> <P> Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises argued that economic and political freedom were mutually dependent: "The idea that political freedom can be preserved in the absence of economic freedom, and vice versa, is an illusion . Political freedom is the corollary of economic freedom . It is no accident that the age of capitalism became also the age of government by the people ." </P> <P> In The Road to Serfdom, Hayek argued that "Economic control is not merely control of a sector of human life which can be separated from the rest; it is the control of the means for all our ends ." Hayek criticized socialist policies as the slippery slope that can lead to totalitarianism . </P> <P> Gordon Tullock has argued that "the Hayek - Friedman argument" predicted totalitarian governments in much of Western Europe in the late 20th century--which did not occur . He uses the example of Sweden, in which the government at that time controlled 63 percent of GNP, as an example to support his argument that the basic problem with The Road to Serfdom is "that it offered predictions which turned out to be false . The steady advance of government in places such as Sweden has not led to any loss of non-economic freedoms ." While criticizing Hayek, Tullock still praises the classical liberal notion of economic freedom, saying, "Arguments for political freedom are strong, as are the arguments for economic freedom . We needn't make one set of arguments depend on the other ." </P>

A capitalist economy allows for more freedom to pursue market opportunities