Self-Regulation and Human Progress: How Society Gains When We Govern Less

Most of us are familiar with free-market competition: the idea that society and the economy benefit when people are left to self-regulate, testing new ideas in pursuit of profit. Less known is the fact that this theory arose after arguments for the scientific method and freedom of speech had gone mainstream—and that all three share a common basis.

Proponents of self-regulation in the realm of free speech have argued that unhindered public expression causes true ideas to gain strength through...