Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'democracy'

September 21, 2012

ResearchLinks – 09.21.12

Book Note: “As If God Existed” Maurizio Viroli. As if God Existed: Religion and Liberty in the History of Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. Religion and liberty are often thought to be mutual enemies: if religion has a natural ally, it is authoritarianism–not republicanism or democracy. Continue Reading...
June 08, 2012

The Dangers of Democratic Tyranny

In the context of commentary on protests like those in Quebec and the Occupy movement more broadly, it’s worth reflecting on the dangers of democratic tyranny. The “people” can be tyrannical just as an individual sovereign or an oligarchy might. Continue Reading...
November 22, 2011

Samuel Gregg: Eurocracy Run Amuck

At National Review Online, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg observes that “much of Europe’s political class seems willing to go to almost any lengths to save the euro — including, it seems, beyond the bounds permitted by EU treaty law and national constitutions.” Continue Reading...
June 23, 2011

Key to Economic Flourishing

It is nice to know that we here at Acton have friends in high places.  This article at Catholic Exchange by George Weigel points out that Blessed John Paul II had some keen insights into what makes economic life flourish: “John Paul taught that what the Church proposes is not simply the free society, but the free and virtuous society. Continue Reading...
May 20, 2011

The West and the Rest

Over at the Comment site, I review Dambisa Moyo’s How the West was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly—and the Stark Choices Ahead. In “War of the Worldviews,” I note that the strongest elements of Moyo’s work are related to her analysis of the causes and the trends of global economic power. Continue Reading...
December 16, 2010

Understanding Human Behavior

In “Human Nature and Capitalism” on AEI’s The American, Arthur C. Brooks and Peter Wehner look at three different “pictures” of what it means to be human and point to the one, foundational understanding that has undergirded the flourishing American culture of democratic capitalism: “If men were angels,” wrote James Madison, the father of the Constitution, in Federalist Paper No. Continue Reading...
November 02, 2010

Vote Today

“Elections belong to the people. It is their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” Continue Reading...
September 29, 2010

Review: Whittaker Chambers

Whittaker Chambers began Witness, the classic account of his time in the American Communist underground, with the declaration: “In 1937, I began, like Lazarus, the impossible return.” The line was most of all a deep recognition of the power of God to redeem what was once dead. Continue Reading...