Economic Freedom And Conflicts Tendencies In The Balkan Countries

Abstract The connection between economic freedom and conflictis seen differently by different researchers. This paper explores the relationship between economic freedom and conflict and the tendencies in the Balkan region. The economic freedom index by Heritage foundation was used and it was related to the data from Heidelberg Institute of International Conflict Research HIIK and their conflict barometer. The analysis was done in order to determine the current tendencies in the region for the period from 1995 to 2012. The results showed that there are no countries in the groups of Mostly Free and Free countries but there is a constant growth in the economic freedom index in the recent years. The analyzes of the conflicts showed that most of the countries are in the group of Moderately Free countries with at least one conflict with high percentage of conflict occurrence and difficulties in finding resolution for long period of time. The relationship of the conflicts and economic freedom showed that Balkan countries have tendency to become economic free countries with less conflicts.