Hong Kong Freedom

Dan Klein points Bryan Kaplan toward an essay on Hong Kong Freedom (pdf), by Christian Wignall:

In fifty years (1947-1997) Hong Kong grew from being one of the poorest to one of the richest places in the world. GDP per head grew from less than 20% of Britain's in the early fifties to 120% of Britain's by 1997. Real GDP averaged 6% annual growth in the final fifteen years of British rule 1982-97 and was even faster in earlier periods.

This came about because the people of Hong Kong had freedom, even though they didn't have democracy.