Populism

February 13, 2024

Genesis 1 vs. the Populist Threat

Political polarization is the watchword in this cultural moment. Family members and friends are estranged over everything from Trump to transgenderism. We seem strangely obsessed with the news and even rally our children as public mascots for our various causes. Continue Reading...

July 28, 2023

Hungary Is Not Viktor Orbán

Viktor Orbán, the controversial prime minister of Hungary, has no shortage of critics or defenders. For the critics, he is an authoritarian villain, a sinister leading voice in the global populist movement. Continue Reading...

October 19, 2022

The Next American Economy Is Cause for Hope

Let me start with my summary judgement of The Next American Economy: Nation, State, and Markets in an Uncertain World: Samuel Gregg has written an outstanding contribution to the theory and practice of political economy for our times. Continue Reading...

October 06, 2020

Fratelli Tutti is a familiar mixture of dubious claims, strawmen, genuine insights

One of the first things that will strike readers of Pope Francis’s new social encyclical Fratelli Tutti is its sheer length. At about 43,000 words in English (including footnotes), that’s more than the Book of Genesis (32,046) and three times the size of the Gospel of John (15,635). Continue Reading...

July 22, 2020

The Tucker Carlson-Sean Hannity showdown: Who was right?

The underlying tensions between national conservatism and a more pro-business Republican orthodoxy burst into the open during a 24-second, primetime exchange on Fox News Channel. During the hand-off between hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Hannity seemingly rebuked his lead-in for criticizing Jeff Bezos’ fortune. Continue Reading...

August 23, 2019

Italy’s usual political turmoil

I appeared on EWTN News Nightly yesterday to talk about the collapse of the Italian government. Such turmoil is nothing new in Italy. Discontent with the political class is the main reason there was a populist coalition government in the first place. Continue Reading...

June 26, 2019

Compulsory vote and populism — an urgent problem in Latin America

In the United States there is a significant amount of criticism on the political left towards the Electoral College Voting System. The ones making this argument normally state that the “winning takes all” measure creates a bias against minorities, destroying the country’s popular vote. Continue Reading...

May 28, 2019

Can intellectuals actually win elections?

In my previous Letter from Rome, I asked whether populists have the capacity to govern, given the failings of the Italian coalition made up of left-wing and right-wing populists and their apparent disdain for ideology. Continue Reading...

January 10, 2019

In Spain, collectivism is rising on the Right

Spain closed out 2018 by witnessing the rise of a new and growing populist party named Vox, writes Ángel Manuel García Carmona in a new essay for Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website: Since 2016, right-wing populist parties have been on the rise in Europe: National Rally (formerly the National Front) in France, the League in Italy, the Party for Freedom in Netherlands, Vlaams Belang in Flanders, and the Alternative for Germany are but a few examples. Continue Reading...

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