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UWA second year Law/Arts student Toby Evans has received first prize in the 2010 Hayek Essay contest, an international contest run by the Mont Pelerin Society .

Winning a cash prize of $2500 plus a travel grant which includes a trip to Sydney for the 2010 Mont Pelerin Society General Meeting. Toby also gained recognition internationally - with second and third prize going to France and the United States respectively.

Toby entered the competition after receiving a prompting email via the Economics department at UWA, originally from the Centre for Independent Studies in NSW.

The competition was open to all individuals’ aged 35 years or younger, and invited entrants to write a 5000 word essay examining “whether authoritarian capitalism is a viable alternative to its Western liberal version, to promote long term economic growth and development.”

In summarising his winning essay, Toby says “essentially I made a distinction between political and economic freedom, arguing that the economic liberalisation that has occurred in many of these so-called 'authoritarian capitalist' regimes really mirrors that of many liberal-democratic countries.

“So if the economic spheres are quite similar, the question I wanted to consider is whether political freedom has other benefits in terms of economic performance, equality and so on. I decided that the tangible economic success of authoritarian countries like China and Singapore perhaps suggests that political freedom isn't as important in the economic sphere as we in the West might believe.”

Toby  drew closely on what he learnt during his first in year in Arts, particularly one of his Political Science and International Relations units POLS1101 – The Liberal Democratic State. In the Arts component of his Law/Arts degree, Toby is completing a major in Indonesian but says “politics is/ and has been a major part of my studies so far”.  He is particularly interested in the impact of political ideology and policy on economics.

Media references

Toby Evans (+61 4) 17 179 101

Lisa Rozentals (Administrative Assistant (Marketing) for the Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences) (+61 8)  6488 3047