Political freedom is a recurring subject on The Bob Zadek Show, discussed by host Bob Zadek and guests including Ilya Somin, Yeonmi Park, Roger L. Martin, and Jonathan Bydlak. The excerpts do not present a single settled definition. Bob Zadek treats political freedom as one component of a broader ideal of freedom from coercion, while Somin treats it as the ability to choose which government to live under by moving. The episodes place the concept alongside economic freedom, democracy, homeownership, migration, and sanctions.
Bob Zadek’s framing
In the April 18, 2010 episode on the credit crunch, Bob Zadek argued that homeowners who cannot afford their homes have no entitlement to remain in them. He said a person has the right to live in a home only if he can afford it, and that otherwise he should become a renter. Becoming a renter, Bob said, is not a death sentence and does not deprive a person of the American Dream: a renter still has economic and political freedom, he said, and simply does not mow a lawn anymore The Credit Crunch (2010).
In the same episode, Bob defined the American Dream as the dream to live free of government interference, to raise children to be better and better educated than oneself, and to have political freedom. He said the American Dream is unrelated to homeownership, and he criticized George Bush and President Obama for suggesting that renting means the American Dream has bypassed a person. He also described a statute passed in December 2003, the American Dream Downpayment Initiative, which he said provided money to states and localities with a population of at least 150,000 people to allocate $50,000 a homeowner to help people buy homes The Credit Crunch (2010).
In the February 21, 2021 episode with Roger L. Martin, Bob said freedom is the goal and that a system works only to the extent it does not rely on coercion. Asked by Martin what role democracy plays in freedom, Bob called democracy a political system that determines who decides who the leaders are and what the content of the laws is. He said it is possible to have economic freedom without much political freedom, citing Singapore as having a large amount of economic freedom and a profoundly diminished amount of political freedom. Bob also said democracy is a system that enables citizens to have an ultimate check on the government, a way to slow down and redirect government When More is Not Better (2021).
Economic freedom first
In the June 22, 2014 episode with North Korean defector Yeonmi Park, the sequence between economic and political freedom is the explicit subject. Park said political freedom comes last, and that this is why the government wants to stop economic freedom first. Bob responded that economic freedom happens first, and that in North Korea the government tolerates it because it has to feed the people or else there will be a revolution or mass starvation. He said that with economic freedom comes information and a growing middle class, and that as the middle class grows it will inevitably demand political freedom to go along with economic freedom. He described this as the evolution of a top-down totally managed government to a more free market system, driven by economics, and said capitalism is the system that will relieve famine and poverty Yeonmi Park – North Korean Defector: “Juche” Die, Markets Rise (2014).
Park said the black market in North Korea is growing every day. Asked whether the government allows that growth and does not jail people for operating a black market, Park said there are lots of restrictions, but that there are lots of bribes and the North Korean system is not clear. She said workers for the government are not very loyal to it either, that they take bribes and do not send people to jail, and that underneath the market keeps growing. Bob framed the market as creating wealth and then using that wealth to buy more freedom by bribing government officials, making freedom a commodity and a cost of doing business. He compared this to the United States, where the cost is licenses and permissions, and said that in North Korea one pays the same licenses illegally. Park agreed, saying that if somebody really wants to do something they have to bribe, and that usually it is okay for them Yeonmi Park – North Korean Defector: “Juche” Die, Markets Rise (2014).
Foot voting and political freedom
The May 14, 2020 episode features Ilya Somin of George Mason University discussing his book Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom. The episode description states that Bob and Somin explore why foot voting—the ability to choose which government to live under by moving—is often a more effective and informed mechanism for political freedom than traditional ballot box voting, and that they discuss internal and international migration as well as regulatory barriers like zoning and occupational licensing Foot Voting > Ballot Voting (2020).
In the episode, Bob said Somin discusses how powerful foot voting, or the threat of voting with one’s feet, is on the behavior of governments, and how crucial the right to move from place to place is to preserve freedom. Bob said immigration is relevant because it is foot voting, but that it is not merely moving from New York to Montana; it is moving across the globe to a place where one does not speak the language and does not know the culture, at great threat to one’s family and oneself, just to start a new life and experience freedom Foot Voting > Ballot Voting (2020).
Somin said one of the key points of his book is a fundamental similarity between foot voting through international migration and foot voting internally within a single country in a federal system, that in both cases it provides opportunities for political freedom and to enhance one’s economic situation and liberty more generally. He said it is ironic that the two issues are usually discussed separately, with people on the right who like internal foot voting often viewing international migration with suspicion, and people on the left often having the reverse set of attitudes. He said the gains from free international migration are much larger than those from internal foot voting, because the difference between the best and worst American state is small compared to the differences between countries, and that even the worst American state is not nearly as bad as Cuba, Venezuela, or Haiti. He said economists estimate that free migration throughout the world could approximately double world GDP, and that a person who moves to the US from Venezuela or Cuba experiences a massive increase in freedom almost impossible to replicate through internal migration Foot Voting > Ballot Voting (2020).
Democracy, asylum, and sanctions
In the August 23, 2021 episode, Bob interviewed Somin, described as a professor of law at George Mason University who focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights, about the legal and philosophical underpinnings of immigration and asylum policy after the Afghanistan crisis. The episode description states that they discuss the lack of explicit constitutional authority for federal immigration control, the first principles of freedom of movement, and legal hurdles facing asylum seekers, including the material support for terrorism bar applied to victims of forced labor Hard Questions About Asylum and Afghanistan (2021).
In the March 21, 2022 episode on Russian sanctions, Bob argued that economic interconnectedness is not essential for survival but makes life better and cheaper, and that sanctions on Russia will ultimately have an effect because too many people will not stand for it and the pressure will grow from within. Jonathan Bydlak agreed sanctions will prove effective but added caveats, saying it is unclear how much and how long, and pointing to sanctions against apartheid South Africa as an example that took a very long time. Bydlak said there is an important difference between the Western world and Russia on the issue of freedom: in the United States people can vocalize frustration, protest, and vote out elected officials, whereas in Russia independent media and alternative viewpoints have been shut down, people cannot protest, and they cannot really vote out Vladimir Putin. He said it is not clear that sanctions will remove Putin from power in the way or timeline desired The Economic Consequences of Russian Sanctions (2022).
Across episodes
The excerpts show no single developing argument across episodes. The 2010 credit-crunch episode treats political freedom as something a renter retains and as part of the American Dream; the 2014 Yeonmi Park episode treats it as something that follows economic freedom; the 2020 and 2021 Somin episodes treat it as the object of foot voting and migration; the 2021 Roger L. Martin episode treats it as distinct from democracy and from economic freedom; and the 2022 sanctions episode treats it as the difference between citizens who can protest and vote and those who cannot. Bob Zadek advances the economic-first and coercion-based framings, while Somin advances the foot-voting framing and Bydlak advances the contrast between Western and Russian political freedom.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not define political freedom in a single canonical formulation, and they do not resolve whether democracy is necessary for it. They do not state what the December 2003 statute’s full provisions were beyond the allocation described, nor what any court held about immigration authority or the material support bar. The excerpts also do not state the outcome of the sanctions debate or whether foot voting produces the doubling of world GDP that Somin attributes to economists’ estimates.