All Posts Tagged With: "democracy"
The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature
Timothy Ferris is a prolific bestselling author of 12 books on cosmology, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the recipient of several awards for popular science writing. The Science of Liberty is a welcome treatment of a subject often and regrettably neglected by intellectual historians in the social sciences. [...]
21Sep2011 | William N. Butos | 2 comments | ContinuedShakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy against the American Taxpayer
Politics has one feature that sets it apart from all sorts of voluntary action: It employs coercion. Politicians can raid the wallets of taxpayers, forcing them to part with money they would rather spend, donate, or invest according to their own desires. Much of the money thus confiscated is then spent to succor special-interest groups [...]
22Jun2011 | George C. Leef | 5 comments | ContinuedIs a Nation Something That Can Be Built?
In the wake of both the collapse of the Soviet empire and the more recent U.S. interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have seen a lively debate on nation-building. Many people who are ordinarily skeptical about the power of the U.S. government as a force for good, either at home or around the world, have [...]
25May2011 | Steven Horwitz | 10 comments | ContinuedDemocracy and Civil Society
Having the right formal institutions in place is important, but these won’t be effective without the informal rules that undergird a civil society.
8Mar2011 | Sandy Ikeda | 0 comments | ContinuedExercise Your Right to Vote!
Some might argue that the right to vote entails the obligation to vote, perhaps because they heard somewhere that every right entails an obligation.
2Nov2010 | Sandy Ikeda | 31 comments | ContinuedTeddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Vision of History
Over a hundred years ago, on August 31, 1910, Teddy Roosevelt gave his famous “New Nationalism” speech in Osawatomie, Kansas. In that speech the former president projected his vision for how the federal government could regulate the American economy. He defended the government’s expansion during his presidency and suggested new ways that it could promote [...]
22Sep2010 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 8 comments | ContinuedMalts in the Cafeteria
“Elect me and we will have malts in the cafeteria … every day!”
2Aug2010 | Tracy Stone Lawson | 14 comments | ContinuedThe Universal Hunger for Liberty: Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable
The free society is a frail and demanding institutional order. It requires that men resist the temptation to violate the freedom of others who may act and speak in disagreeable or fundamentally wrong ways. It is far easier to advocate or use force to prevent them from doing so. To get others through noncoercive means [...]
8Jul2010 | Richard M. Ebeling | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad
Modern political discourse often treats democracy as if it were synonymous with liberty. In The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria aims to refute that facile notion and reinvigorate the distinction between the two. As Zakaria puts it, pithily: “The execution of Socrates was democratic but not liberal.” Zakaria’s book is an extended brief against the [...]
2Jul2010 | Gene Healy | 2 comments | ContinuedPlunder! How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation
Karl Marx was right—sort of. He was right in saying that society is riven by class warfare, but he got the classes wrong. It’s not the case that capitalists exploit workers, but rather that tax consumers exploit taxpayers. That truth has long been kept hidden from the average American by deceptive propaganda about the workings [...]
29Jun2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | ContinuedThe 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 | James A. Dorn | 10 comments | Continued“What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear”
I took that title from volume 2, section 4, chapter 6 of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (1840). Considering what has been happening legislatively (and not just in the last year-plus), it seems like a good time to revisit Tocqueville’s writing about democratic despotism. He notes that despotism in a constitutional republic would be [...]
20May2010 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Moral Consequences of Economic Growth
Benjamin Friedman is a professor of political economy and a former chairman of the economics department at Harvard University. He is also an unswerving advocate of the interventionist welfare state. His recent book, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, is meant to demonstrate what is necessary to assure that the majority of the people will [...]
18May2010 | Richard M. Ebeling | 1 comment | Continued“What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear”
Considering what has been happening legislatively of late (and not just in the last year-plus), it seems like a good time to revisit Tocqueville’s writing about democratic despotism.
2Apr2010 | Sheldon Richman | 8 comments | ContinuedWhere’s the Bipartisanship?
James Fallows had an interesting post yesterday called “Why bipartisanship can’t work.” Since it is a long post I’ll summarize the arguments as I see it: Party discipline is difficult in American Politics because candidates raise their own money and can take the party label without the approval of the party. (Academics call this a [...]
2Feb2010 | Mike Van Winkle | 1 comment | ContinuedMysteries of the Universe
If I bribe a congressman, it’s a crime. If a congressman bribes a congressman, it’s glorious democracy in action.
23Nov2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedFrustrating Michael Moore
Whether he realizes it or not, Michael Moore favors a system in which an elite necessarily would make critical decisions for the rest of us. He’d be incredulous to hear that, but if he ever comes to understand it, libertarians might end up with an unlikely ally.
16Oct2009 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | Continued-
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