8th February 2024

 Enlightenment Essay Competition

The Adam Smith Institute is delighted to announce the launch of the Enlightenment Essay competition. In recent years, the Arab World has witnessed remarkable economic growth and a shift towards liberalisation. Nonetheless, the Arab world has no liberal democracies, and instead relies upon ideas such as the Shura, or consultative assemblies.

Free speech, freedom of assembly, scientific applications to philosophy, politics, and economics, resulted from Diderot, Voltaire, Hume, Smith, and countless other revolutionaries of thinking during the 18th century. How can these ideas be embedded in geographies where they did not originate, or indeed, can they?

“How can the ideas of the Enlightenment become embedded in the Arab World?”

Applicants can answer from many angles, such as:

• Whether the Arab world was more advanced than Western Europe in 1000-1500?

• How can projects like NEOM drive Enlightenment?

• How should the region balance bottom-up emergent capitalism (the historic UK model) and top-down capitalism (a more Singaporean model)?

• What comments would Adam Smith or Ibn Khaldun make if they visited the region today?

• How can the GCC implement the ideas of Enlightenment economics?
  

Prizes: £8,000 for first place, £4,000 for second place, and £2,000 for third place.

Eligibility: Everyone.

Format: 5,000 words including footnotes. Chicago citation. British English.

Submissions are closed. The deadline was 27th of September at midnight (GMT).