Archive for James A. Dorn

James Dorn is vice president for academic affairs at the Cato Institute.

China: Wealth but Not Freedom

When Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Washington earlier this year he received the gracious welcome and state dinner he did not get on his first visit in 2006. He also had some tough discussions on trade, foreign exchange, national security, and human rights. China can be proud of the rapid economic progress it has made [...]

21Apr2011 | | 2 comments | Continued

China: Wealth But Not Freedom

The harmony, stability, and peaceful development that Beijing seeks will be on shaky grounds until the CCP confronts the reality that top-down order is not consistent with human happiness, and that spontaneous order emerges from free markets and a genuine rule of law.

31Jan2011 | | 9 comments | Continued

China’s Future

The threat to China’s future development is not lack of resources or technology, but the absence of an institutional framework that limits government and protects property rights. It has been 15 years since the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989, and 25 years since Deng Xiaoping embarked on economic reform in 1979. China is now [...]

2Jul2010 | | 0 comments | Continued

The Rise of Government and the Decline of Morality

The recent financial crisis has expanded the power of government. Tea parties have revealed the disillusion of millions of Americans with the rise of government and the decline of morality. The crisis has damaged, unfairly, the vision of market liberalism. It is essential, therefore, to reexamine and articulate the principles of a free society and [...]

29Jun2010 | | 10 comments | Continued

The Wisdom of Nien Cheng

Nien Cheng, author of Life and Death in Shanghai (1986), died in Washington last November at the age of 94. She was an incredibly courageous woman and the embodiment of grace and wisdom. She loved traditional Chinese culture, but her world was shattered on August 30, 1966, when the Red Guards ransacked her home and, [...]

24Mar2010 | | 4 comments | Continued

Adam Smith in China

James Dorn is a China specialist at the Cato Institute and professor of economics at Towson University in Maryland. A shorter version of this article first appeared in the Times of India, January 24, 2007. China’s transition from plan to market since 1978 has not only increased prosperity but also has led to a new [...]

1May2007 | | 2 comments | Continued

Institutions and Development: The Case of China

James Dorn (jdorn@cato.org) is a China specialist and vice president for academic affairs at the Cato Institute. He is coeditor of China’s Future: Constructive Partner or Emerging Threat? (Cato Institute, 2000). An earlier version of this article appeared in Vital Speeches of the Day (November 15, 2005). From a liberal perspective the goal of economic [...]

1Jun2006 | | 0 comments | Continued

U.S.-China Relations after CNOOC

When the China hawks in Congress joined
forces last summer with protectionists, a
strong (and dangerous) coalition formed to
effectively end any hopes that CNOOC Ltd., a subsidiary
of the state-owned China National Offshore Oil
Company, would succeed in its bid to acquire Unocal.

1Dec2005 | | 1 comment | Continued

Why Freedom Matters

The future of civilization depends on preserving and spreading freedom. As a moral principle, freedom means we ought to respect private property rights, broadly understood as the rights to life, liberty, and property. As a practical matter, when private property rights are protected by law, individuals will be free to trade for mutual gain and [...]

1Jul2005 | | 0 comments | Continued

The Rule of Law and Freedom in Emerging Democracies: A Madisonian Perspective

James Dorn is vice president for academic affairs at the Cato Institute. The collapse of communism in 1989 in Eastern and Central Europe, and the fall of the Soviet Union two years later, have increased the number of democracies in the world to a total of 120. Of those, however, only 85 are classified as [...]

1Aug2001 | | 0 comments | Continued

Frederic Bastiat: The Primacy of Property

James Dorn is vice president for academic affairs at the Cato Institute and a professor of economics at Towson University in Maryland. This is adapted from a longer article that will appear in the September 2001 Journal des Économistes. Reprinted by permission. Frédéric Bastiat, although best known as an economic journalist, was also a pioneer [...]

1Jun2001 | | 2 comments | Continued

P. T. Bauer’s Market-Liberal Vision

Today it is not unusual to hear it suggested that the undeveloped world’s best hope lies in private property, the market economy, and the rule of law. But a short time ago, that suggestion would have scandalized many audiences. Peter Bauer is a major reason for that shift. Lord Bauer, the son of a Budapest [...]

1Oct2000 | | 0 comments | Continued

China’s Spontaneous Order

James Dorn is vice president for academic affairs at the Cato Institute and professor of economics at Towson University. He is the editor of China in the New Millennium: Market Reforms and Social Development (Cato Institute, 1998). A shorter version of this article appeared in the Journal of Commerce. This year marks the 50th anniversary [...]

1Apr1999 | | 1 comment | Continued

A New Monetary Universe

Electronic money (e-money) offers the possibility of privatizing the currency and making government fiat money disappear. Competition and falling processing costs will prompt e-money issuers to pay interest to users, and as people choose to hold that money rather than non-interest-bearing paper money issued by central banks, there will be a radical change in economic [...]

1Nov1998 | | 2 comments | Continued

Free Trade and Human Rights in China

James A. Dorn is vice president for academic affairs at the Cato Institute. This essay is a condensed version of his article in the Spring/Summer 1996 Cato Journal. The best way to promote human rights around the world is to promote free trade. Trade liberalization improves ties among nations, increases their wealth, and advances civil [...]

1May1997 | | 3 comments | Continued

Ending Tax Socialism

In 1848 Marx and Engels proposed that progressive taxation be used to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeois, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state. Although communism has failed, the idea of progressive taxation as a means of achieving social justice endures. A progressive income tax violates the [...]

1Nov1996 | | 2 comments | Continued

The Rise of Government and the Decline of Morality

Government and Morality The growth of government has politicized life and weakened the nation’s moral fabric. Government intervention—in the economy, in the community, and in society—has increased the payoff from political action and reduced the scope of private action. People have become more dependent on the State and have sacrificed freedom for a false sense [...]

1Mar1996 | | 0 comments | Continued

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