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democracy 84

Review of Suicide of the West

Jonah Goldberg’s Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy, appearing on Amazon and New York Times bestseller lists, represents…

What Wendell Berry’s Brush Teaches Us About Capitalism, Community, and “Inevitability”

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] The Art of Loading Brush: New Agrarian Writings, the latest collection of writings by Wendell Berry, isn't a perfect book, nor the perfect expression of…

Why Patrick Deneen Failed

It's already an amazon dot hell best-seller in political theory.
Jason Peters
January 17, 2018

The leaders we deserve

I'm heading back to the United States this month to spend some time with my family, and I'm headed back to an America whipped up into a political frenzy. Europeans…

What Will $100 Million Buy You?

When $100 million is being spent on the governor and senate campaigns in their state, Michiganders might want to sit up and take notice.
Jeff Polet
October 30, 2014

News from Nowhere

Providence, RI There are in these recent days at least three matters of great importance confronting my beloved land, The Assimilated Provinces of Megalomerica. They are related to one another.…
October 20, 2014

The Loss of a Culture of Personhood and the End of Limited Government

Philadelphia, PA The idea and practice of limited government begins with Christianity.  Pagan antiquity could not imagine such a thing, because there was no distinction between religion and governance.  …

Death by Democracy

George Will argues that Detriot was killed by democracy. Detroit, which boomed during World War II when industrial America was “the arsenal of democracy,” died of democracy. Today, among the…
Mark T. Mitchell
August 2, 2013

Truth on the Losing Side

Justice Scalia’s dissents in the two same-sex “marriage” cases are worth reading. The first opinion addresses the idea of judicial supremacy within the federal government—what Jefferson called “the despotism of…

America Needs Another Bush?

Accusing President Obama of “caviling over chemical weapons in Syria,” The Economist insists that events in Syria are “exposing Mr Obama’s hubris,” his “overconfidence,” and revealing his foreign policy ineptitude.…
May 16, 2013

A Burke for Our Times

In a wonderful article published here at FPR a few weeks ago, Jason Peters argued that a proper education ought to provoke a kind of spiritual or intellectual crisis among…

What’s Wrong With Iowa? (A Transplanted Professor Knows)

If you think you may legitimately enjoy the physical benefits of a place while dwelling in the airy regions of judgment above it, you’d better think again.
Jason Peters
February 7, 2012

Democracy and Coercion

Like other readers here at FPR, and across the web, I have been following the Great Salyer/Carter Debate of 2012 with much interest. I thought Mr. Salyer’s original article was…

Debating Conservatism: An Old Mistake in The New Inquiry

Late last week, The New Inquiry published an email exchange between Daniel Larison of The American Conservative and political theorist Corey Robin. Larison had taken issue with Robin's argument that…

C.S. Lewis on Mere Liberty and the Evils of Statism Pt. III

This is Part II of a III Part series on C.S. Lewis and Statism. The series originally appeared at theIndependent Institute. See Part I here and Part II here. Collectivism and…
August 18, 2011

Mafia Among the Mountain Folk

What ironies of fate converged that morning, such that a mob was about to come out on a march against us?
July 12, 2011

Waking Up, Smelling the Constitutional Coffee

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS Dahlia Lithwick and Ezra Klein are a couple of my favorite pundits in the whole blogosphere. Lithwick is snarky, and Klein is wonky,…
May 17, 2011

Attributes of the Gentleman or Mr. Darcy’s Rules of Engagement

Even in a democratic age, where social classes are fluid and poorly demarcated, the gentleman is characterized by these five attributes.
Mark T. Mitchell
May 15, 2011

History’s Long Road to Tyranny: Tocqueville and the End of Equality

Devon, PA. I have just finished teaching Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America with my freshmen students.  In a way I have not witnessed before, they were compelled by his…

Egypt, Tunisia, and the Failure of Neoclassical Economic Theory

The regime changes in Egypt and Tunisia have been hailed as victories for democracy, as proof of the liberalizing power of social networking media, as testimony to the power of…
March 24, 2011

انه الاقتصاد، غبي

Here are two scenarios: one leads through democratic enlightenment to peace and prosperity, and the other through intractable economic problems to war and disintegration.

Why I am a Member of the Permanent Opposition

Long live the King, somewhere damned else.
December 16, 2010

Waiting for Superman, and a Real Conversation

The film describes a good education as one which prepares students for the high-tech jobs available in 21st Century America. A few union supporters have objected that the purpose of…
November 29, 2010