Alejandro Chafuen in Forbes: Bolsonaro and the new Brazil

Yesterday in Forbes, Alejandro Chafuen, Acton’s Managing Director, International, weighed in on Jair Bolsonaro’s new administration in Brazil. Bolsonaro’s coalition includes people of many different backgrounds and ideas, and collaboration among them will be key for the administration’s success. Continue Reading...

Solving Africa’s state-society gap

The advent of 2019 has many wondering what kind of world will emerge in the next many years. Predictions of disruptive, technological change, and the transfer of geopolitical power abound. A recent report by the Hoover Institute specifically analyzes what kind of political, economic, and technological trends will form on the continent of Africa, given the shifting sands of our times. Continue Reading...

Brexit and demophobia

Last night, the UK Parliament rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposal towards an agreed exit from the European Union that would keep North Ireland part of the EU. And here we go again. Continue Reading...

Homeschooling a parent’s choice, not the state’s

Decades ago, when I was first ordained a priest, I shared a prejudice that many people hold: I thought homeschooling families were odd. I believed schooling children at home deprived such children of opportunities to be with other children causing them to be less able to communicate with others, socially awkward and reclusive and narrow in their experience and understanding of the world that they would one day have to grow up in and navigate. Continue Reading...

Explainer: What you should know about the 2018 partial government shutdown

What just happened? On Friday the federal government entered a partial shutdown after the Senate failed to pass a spending bill that includes border wall funding. President Trump refuses to sign any additional funding that does not include $5.1 billion in additional money to pay for an extension of the border wall, allowing him to fulfill his primary campaign promise. Continue Reading...