This publication presents Michael Oakeshott's eloquent discussion of the importance of a diffusion of power in maintaining freedom. Oakeshott's depth, insight and lucid writing style have brought him a wide audience. While long regarded as a leading conservative philosopher, his work has much of interest to liberals as well. Although originally written in 1949, the message contained in The Political Economy of Freedom remains remarkably contemporary in its insistence on the importance of freedom, and the role of competition and free association in preserving that freedom.