Saint Augustine There is an ancient saying, attributed to Aesop: “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to ...

Max Skjönsberg reflects on the different understandings of liberty in the eighteenth century and the important relationship between political and civil liberty in the work of Joseph Priestley. Max ...

Did Adam Smith—celebrated hero of free trade—make a big exception for reasons of national defense? Would he support the Jones Act of today? Caleb Petitt argues that a careful reading of Smith on the ...

Grant Babcock was a philosophy and policy editor at Lib er tar i an ism .org. His interests include nonviolent action, epistemology of the social sciences, social contract theories and criticisms ...

Andrew Jackson conflated his own will with the will of the people, and ran roughshod over the Constitution’s constraints on his power in pursuit of goals that were often contemptible. Miles Smith IV ...

“[F]riends of liberty today need to think seriously about the culture of liberty. It is not just Witherspoon who worries for liberty without God; it is also many others, including arguably John Locke, ...

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 ...

Paul Meany is the editor for intellectual history at Lib er tar i an ism .org, a project of the Cato Institute. Most of his work focuses on examining thinkers who predate classical liberalism but ...

Strange things happen when political parties realize it’s possible to win elections with fewer votes. Structural explanations for polarization—from first past the post elections to the advent of ...

Alex Nowrasteh makes compelling evidence- based counter arguments to the most common objections to immigration. From “immigrants are going to take American jobs” to “they’re going to commit crimes” or ...

Paul Meany is the editor for intellectual history at Lib er tar i an ism .org, a project of the Cato Institute. Most of his work focuses on examining thinkers who predate classical liberalism but ...