Samuel Gregg on the fracturing of France

With the first round of the French election results in, and no major candidates even managing to get a quarter of the total votes, two candidates remain: Marine Le Pen of the National Front, a populist and nationalist party, and Emmanuel Macron, the center-Left candidate of the “En Marche!” Continue Reading...

Venezuelans find a hero in big business

“Big business” has become a favorite target of public scorn and contempt in the United States, constantly decried for its impersonal forces, cronyist lobbying efforts, and supposed greed. In Venezuela, however, the country’s largest privately owned company has become a leading face of anti-government resistance. Continue Reading...

‘Instruction by which we may profit’: A guide to reading Tocqueville’s ‘Democracy in America’ (Part 1)

When Alexis de Tocqueville authored Democracy in America, a two-volume treatment of America, he wrote it “to find there instruction by which we ourselves may profit.” By “we,” Tocqueville was referring to his fellow Frenchmen, but although he may have written those words in 1835, we as Americans of the 21st century also have plenty to profit from Tocqueville’s wisdom, if we’ll but receive it. Continue Reading...