Costa Rica, long the most vigorous democracy in Latin America, ranks below Tunisia and Swaziland. Keep the government's hands off, and you win a high score. By those standards, Nazi Germany would not have done too badly, as long as you were Aryan. This index is useful, in its bizarre fashion, because it reveals something of what our conservative opinion-leaders actually believe. On the first count, they are flat-out wrong.
Political liberty comes first.
The great democratic revolutions were fought over the political liberties of the common people. The great democratic institutions were built to safeguard them. And history is filled with examples of despots that had good working alliances with entrepreneurs. The property rights of the magnates who armed the Third Reich were nicely respected. Most industrializing countries made great leaps forward with a big dose of government help.