Acton Institute Powerblog

Promoting free societies characterized by liberty & religious principles

Search results for "Tocqueville"
July 18, 2019

Minority views? Priceless

There’s something in our DNA to feel threatened by ideas that challenge our own. History is haunted by tragic examples of the suppression of minority views, whether it be Athens killing Socrates (399 BC), the Roman Inquisition’s placing Galileo under house arrest for advocating heliocentrism (1632), Nazi book burning (1933), or the persecution of many thousands of academics during the Cultural Revolution (1966). Continue Reading...
July 05, 2019

IEP Portugal grants the 2019 “Faith And Liberty Lifetime Tribute” on a special feast day

It was again a pleasure for me to chair the “Faith and Liberty Lifetime Tribute” ceremony and session during the 2019 Estoril Political Forum in Estoril, Portugal. The Forum, a three-day program organized by the IEP (Institute for Political Studies) at the Catholic University of Portugal, attracts almost one hundred academic, think tank, and public intellectuals from both sides of the Atlantic. Continue Reading...
May 15, 2019

Why the ‘success sequence’ is not enough

We’ve seen a drastic shift in the social habits and behaviors of Americans, whether in work, education, or family life. Yet with an ever increasing range of “nontraditional” routes to success and stability, social scientists have begun to see how one particular pattern bears fruit. Continue Reading...
April 04, 2019

A Spaniard defends Conservative Liberalism

“Conservative liberalism” isn’t a term commonly used in the United States. Indeed, to American ears, it seems positively oxymoronic. In Europe, however, it constitutes a venerable tradition of political thought and embraces figures ranging from the French thinkers Alexis de Tocqueville and Raymond Aron to economists such as the primary intellectual architect of the German economic miracle, Wilhelm Röpke, and the French monetary theorist Jacques Rueff. Continue Reading...
March 28, 2019

The state of entrepreneurship in America

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is primarily and rightly regarded as a work of political science. But the book is also replete with economic observations. One of the most significant was Tocqueville’s astonishment at “the spirit of enterprise” that characterized much of the country. Continue Reading...