Fundamentals of Freedom: 2009 Asia Essay Contest

The Fund for American Studies Announces Essay Contest Winners!

The Fund for American Studies recently concluded its first ever Fundamentals of Freedom: Asia Essay Contest. The essay topic focused on the quote below from Hernando de Soto’s book, The Mystery of Capital:Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else:

“Imagine a country where nobody can identify who owns what, addresses cannot be easily verified, people cannot be made to pay their debts, resources cannot conveniently be turned into money, ownership cannot be divided into shares, descriptions of assets are not standardized and cannot be easily compared, and the rules that govern property vary from neighborhood to neighborhood or even from street to street.”

Students and young professionals in Asia were asked to think critically about the development of property rights in the region using their country or another country in Asia as a case study.

We received many submissions from nine countries in Asia including Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The winning authors demonstrated a strong understanding of De Soto’s theory and the development of property rights in Asia using valuable country examples to demonstrate their points. The winning essays are featured below with a tie for third place. Congratulations to the winners!

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