laissez-faire

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an economic doctrine or policy favoring minimal government intervention in trade, industry, and markets

   The recession revived the debate between laissez-faire and active economic regulation.

2. 2
   adj

   favoring or characterized by minimal government regulation of economic activity

   The administration abandoned its laissez-faire policy after repeated banking failures.

3. 3
   adj

   allowing people or events to proceed with little supervision, control, or interference

   Her laissez-faire management style gave researchers broad freedom to choose their methods.

Borrowed from French laissez faire, literally 'let [people] do,' using the plural or formal imperative of laisser, 'to let,' with faire, 'to do or make.' The phrase became associated with eighteenth-century arguments for free commerce and minimal state interference.

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