Richard Florida writes that creativity, and hence innovation, flourishes best where there is sufficient stability to allow continuity of effort, along with political openness to allow creative subversive in all its forms. Modern democracies are geared toward economic innovation that has stemmed from British liberalism in the 18thC. Technological innovation is fragile and heavily dependent upon social and political order; Japan and China are good studies on how it can quickly be dampened and even squashed into stasis by restrictive political and social policies.
Florida writes:
One final cautionary note is in order. Joel Mokyr notes that technological creativity has tended to rise and then fade dramatically at various times in various cultures, when social and economic institutions turn rigid and act against it. Spectacular fade outs occurred, for instance, in late medieval times in the Islamic world and in China. Both societies, which had been leaders in fields from mathematics to mechanical invention, then proceeded to fall far behind Western Europe economically.The 19thC Australian Republicans believed that greater liberty and limited government allowed for increased individual moral expression. It also allows for greater economic, technological and creative expression as well.
