“If economics is the dismal science,” says Hans Noel, an associate professor at Georgetown University, “then political science is the dismissed science.” Most Americans—from pundits to voters—don’t think that political science has much to say about political life. But there are some things, notes Noel, that “political scientists know that it seems many practitioners, pundits, journalists, and otherwise informed citizens do not.” Here are excerpts from Noel’s list of ten things political scientists know that you don’t: #1. It’s The...

Pope Benedict XVI made an fortable claim in his 2006 Regensburg address: contemporary Muslim terrorism may owe something to Islam’s conception of God. A year later, Father James V. Schall SJ wrote a book about the address which, as Acton Director of Research Samuel Gregg says, placed it in the wider context of a set of religious and philosophical challenges that many Westerners still can’t bring themselves to address: Over the past sixteen years, Schall has written numerous articles on...

France remains so deeply wedded to secularism (laïcité) that its courts ruled a statue of Pope John Paul II can only remain in place if its cross is removed. Beyond a mere clash of church-and-state, “this case is symptomatic of the identity crisis suffered by France and Western Europe in general,” writes Priscille Kulczyk,a research fellow for theEuropean Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), at the Acton Institute’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website. “They reject their Christian roots, culture, and...

“This year marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most consequential anti-poverty programs in human history,” says Rev. Ben Johnson in this week’s Acton Commentary. “Now, there is evidence that its spillover effects may lift millions more out of dire need.” The new openness to enterprise, private property, and investment led to China’s meteoric economic rise. Now, Donald Trump’s tariffs are encouraging manufacturers to take their factories elsewhere. Ian Chen, CEO of a Chinese technological exporter, said that Trump’s...

Alejandro Chafuen – the Acton Institute’s Managing Director, International – received the prestigious 2018 “Premio Juan de Mariana”award from the Intituto Juan de Mariana earlier this year. Today at Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website, we have posted the full text of his acceptance speech. Chafuen holds special affection for Juan de Mariana, the Jesuit priest and thinker associated with the School of Salamanca. In his remarks, Chafuen summarized the theologian’s economic and political thought, saying: He states that God...

A new study by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation reports on the extent to which governments and societies around the world impinge on religious beliefs and practices. Here are seven figures you should know from the study about trends in religious hostilities: 1. Of the 198 countries included in the study—covering 99.5 percent of the world’s population—28 percent had high or very high levels of government restrictions in 2016 (the most recent year for which data...

“How can we explain this emporiophobia—a fear of markets—given the overwhelming evidence that such institutions provide the greatest wealth, health and happiness for humankind?” When economics professor Paul Rubin asked that questionhe answered by saying that we need to shift the metaphor of markets from petition” to “cooperation.” Cooperation isn’t just more important in the economic sphere—it’s also mon. We cooperate with everyone involved in making all the products we buy and sell, millions of people we’ll never know. […]...

Germany’s development minister made a startling proposal to the EU this week. There is a simple way to help Africa flourish and reduce the number of migrants seeking greener pastures in Europe: “Open the market for all African goods.” The proposal not only stymies EU officials, who preside over arch-protectionist agricultural regulations, but may solve the continent’s most vexing problem: illegal migration. German Development Minister Gerd Müller proposed a free trade policy – especially for agriculture – in an interview...

Note: This is post #89 in a weekly video series on basic economics. pany can raise money and create new investment by selling shares through an initial public offering (IPO). When you buy pany’s shares on the stock market, though, no new investment is created. So what exactly do stock markets do? In this video by Marginal Revolution University,Alex Tabarrok explains how stock markets serve as a financial intermediary and serves as a key institution encouraging new businesses. (If you...

With the financial crisis nearly a decade behind us, and with the latest figures showing4.1 percent economic growth, the economic woes of yesteryear feel increasingly distant in our past. Even still, it’s hard to avoid the sense that something remains amiss—that beneath the material successes and encouraging metrics about unemployment rates and Gross Domestic Product, our society continues to lack the moral fabric necessary for sustained and holistic economic flourishing. In his book, Crisis of Responsibility, investment advisor David Bahnsen...