Why is it so rare for us to evaluate the idea of exporting “classical Enlightenment liberalism” to other countries by its results — not by its ideas or by its goals, which don’t matter, but by its actual impact on physical reality, which does matter?

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Nathan Smith is a former business journalist and columnist at the NBR. He also worked as the chief editor at the New Zealand Initiative policy think tank. He is now a freelance writer and copy editor.