While globalization has opened up markets everywhere, it has also thrown the inherent tension between government economic activism and entrepreneurial freedom into sharp relief. We now take up crucial questions about the proper role of government on the one hand, and the place, indeed the very future, of entrepreneurship on the other.

In our global economy entrepreneurs are frequently competing with companies supported and directed, and often controlled, by the governments of the countries where they do business. It is hardly an even match: such policies inevitably engender hidden or overt preferences for buying local products.

Clearly, state-controlled economies pose a serious challenge to the basic concept of entrepreneurship and the ability of foreign corporations to operate freely within those economies. By raising barriers to international sales opportunities, they clearly increase the inherent risks of launching new entrepreneurial businesses. Under such conditions, it is fair to ask whether the individualistic and “random” entrepreneurial process, gated by so many unpredictable circumstances, can be counted upon in the future as a signii - cant economic driver. Must governments everywhere become much more involved in supporting ambitious entrepreneurs focused on creating new markets? This is a pressing issue for countries like the US, which have a tradition of free markets and limited government support of their industries.