Spencer and Hayek’s Liberal Evolutionism, and Why It Should Omit the Nation-State
ABSTRACT: Herbert Spencer and F.A. Hayek developed bodies of liberal political thought that stress the importance of evolutionary social adaptation as a type of spontaneous order. An evolutionary social theory, properly understood, can form part of a liberal theory of
How Governments Killed the Gold Standard
The historical embodiment of monetary freedom is the gold standard. The era of its greatest flourishing was not coincidentally the 19th century, the century in which classical liberal ideology reigned, a century of unprecedented material progress and peaceful relations between
Rothbard’s The Ethics of Liberty with Stephan Kinsella
Lawyer and legal theorist Stephan Kinsella joins the show as we dive into Part II of Rothbard's The Ethics of Liberty, grappling with the foundational issues of crime, proportionality, and contract. When is property justly held? When may injuries to
The Populist Case for the Gold Standard
ABSTRACT: There have been many calls for reforming the gold standard since the end of the classical gold standard and especially since the end of Bretton Woods. While these calls have somewhat abated in recent years, this article will attempt
Subjectivism Exposed the Limits of Political Will. Statists Hated It.
In Human Action, Mises suggests that opposition to economic theory intensified as the theory developed. When the subjectivist school showed that economics isn’t limited to a separate sphere, but rather that all human action can be studied scientifically, the opposition
Inflation Is Great If You’re Already Rich
We've seen pictures of empty shelves in Venezuela. Meantime, the one-year return on the Caracas stock exchange is 1,804.92 percent. If you're already rich in assets, inflation is a big nothing burger. But it's a problem if you're poor. Original Article:
A Defense Against Attacks on Negative Liberty
ABSTRACT: Isaiah Berlin made the distinction between negative liberty and positive liberty. Since then, prominent contemporary philosophers including Charles Taylor and Martha Nussbaum have declared negative liberty insufficient or incoherent. This is a critique of those declarations, which have been
Decentralization: Why the EU May Be Better than the US
Over the years, I’ve been pretty hard on the European Union. Both as an editor and a writer, I’ve published articles criticizing its central bank and its unelected, bureaucratic central government. Especially objectionable is the EU ruling class’s propensity for
Law Order vs. Lawyer Order: Analyzing the Development of Jury Independence
ABSTRACT: This essay develops a model to analyze jury independence. Jury independence can be seen as a game between elites and the citizens who make up the jury. This essay first presents a historical look at jury independence by looking
Enforced Equality or—Justice?
Volume 8, Number 1 (1986) I In the Preface to The Mirage of Social Justice, the second volume of his trilogy on Law, Legislation and Liberty, F. A. Hayek explained that "circumstances have contributed to delay the publication of the second volume