Free Enterprise Flourishes When Businesses Serve Workers, Shareholders, and Communities—Not Activist Elites 

The Free Enterprise Initiative advances the principles and institutions that make American economic freedom possible. We believe Americans flourish when they are free to work, to build, and to provide for their families in an industrious economy that rewards service and value-creation. That requires respect for private property, the freedom to start and grow a business, and an economic system that strengthens families rather than undermines them. 

We pursue this work across the full range of factors that shape our economy—from policy and legislation to regulatory engagement, from financial oversight and competitiveness to corporate governance and accountability. 

Protecting free enterprise requires more than good ideas. It requires sustained leadership wherever the rules of our economy are written and enforced. 

What is Free Enterprise? 

Free enterprise is the freedom to participate in economic life—as a worker, an entrepreneur, or an investor. 

It means the ability to start a business without asking Washington and state capitals for permission, to compete on a level playing field, to own property, to contract freely, and to take risks in pursuit of opportunity. Success comes from creating value for others—not from political favoritism or insider advantage. 

Free enterprise depends on a sturdy moral and institutional framework: strong property rights, enforceable contracts, sound money, and rules that maintain competitive markets. It means low barriers to entry, real opportunity for new innovators, and an economy where work provides not only a paycheck but dignity and purpose. 

Free enterprise is ultimately about the American people—their initiative, their creativity, and their responsibility. It is about creating the conditions where hard work leads to upward mobility, where family businesses can endure, and where Americans can build better lives for themselves and their children.