I have disaggregated the Navigation Acts into two large categories: the colonial- trade provisions and the seacap provisions. Smith heavily criticizes the colonial- trade provisions, and his ...

Crypto- anarchism is a philosophy whose advocates think technology can assist them in creating communities based on consent rather than coercion. Crypto- anarchists wish to be free from state ...

The socialist calculation debate revolves around the question of whether central planners can, at least in principle, make the economic calculations necessary to achieve the rational, efficient ...

The Sanskrit Arthashastra, a manual for establishing a prosperous state written in ancient India by Kautilya, articulates many principles that would later become the foundations of modern economics.

Once a political party knows it can win elections with a merely mid- 40s percent share of the two- party vote, any challenge to that system can start to feel like an existential threat. At the same ...

From “immigrants are going to take American jobs” to “they’re going to commit crimes” or “they won’t learn English,” we’ve heard it all. The Most Common Arguments Against Immigration and Why They’re ...

In the early 20th- century liberal ideas were in danger of becoming extinct with the rise of extreme ideologies such as fascism and communism in Europe and the massively expanding state of the New ...

The 12th- century clergyman John of Salisbury has been relegated to obscurity today. This is a great shame because his treatise on politics entitled Policraticus despite it’s medieval trappings ...

Today Cicero is often read only by classical scholars and reluctant students, which is a great shame because his life and philosophy reflect a sort of proto- liberalism that came to influence a wide ...

The right of revolution, according to classical liberal thinkers, is derived from the natural right of self- preservation. Because the purpose of government is to protect individuals against assaults ...

The idea of providing everyone with a basic income has evolved over the last half- century from a pipe dream into a serious proposal with broad, cross- ideological support. However, only some ...

Edmund Burke, an Irish- born British politician and philosopher, served in the House of Commons for almost 30 years and authored an extensive and influential body of speeches and books. Conventionally ...