If a society encourages freedom of thought and expression, then, during the time when it does so, creativity will flourish in that society  In the United States creativity flourished during the eighteenth century
It is clear, ttherefore, that freedom of thought was encouraged in the United States during eighteenth century
None of the so-called Western democracies is really democratic, because, for a country to be democratic, the opinion of each of its citizens must have a meaningful effect on government, and in none of these countries does each citizen's opinion have such an effect.