A wide range of U.S. government agencies and offices use the reports for such efforts as shaping policy and conducting diplomacy. The Secretary of State also uses the reports to help determine which countries have engaged in or tolerated “particularly severe violations” of religious freedom in order to designate “countries of particular concern.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback discussed the report at a special briefing. “This mission is not just...

Alejandro Chafuen, Acton’s Managing Director, International, has lectured during two visits to Uruguay this year, and today in Forbes he presents an examination of various candidates and policies in the lead-up to the country’s presidential elections this October. Uruguay, the most secular country in Latin America, also ranks highly in such categories as rule of law, confidence in government, low perceptions of corruption and crime, and so forth. Political culture and society in Uruguay are also marked by strong currents...

In his must-read book, The Quest for Community, Robert Nisbet discusses the relationship munity and authority. Communities provide human connection and sense of belonging, but they e with limitations. They make demands up us to do certain things, to hold fast to certain beliefs. You can’t simply do whatever you want and still remain part of munity.
 Community without authority is not munity. This is of course one of the tensions of contemporary life. We all munity, but we don’t...

One of the highlights of my summers working at the Acton Institute is leading discussions with our interns over major ideas, thinkers, and issues. This afternoon we had a spirited and thought provoking discussion about conservative critiques of liberalism. We discussed Patrick Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed (Helpfully discussed in this Econtalk podcast), a critical review, and a couple of related blog posts. In these discussions I usually like to keep my cards close to my chest to better facilitate the...

Update (Aug. 6): Writing at The National Interest, Gordon C. Chang says “it’s now a revolution.” In an especially tone-deaf press conference Monday, Lam, standing next to eight grim-faced ministers, made no further concessions, either symbolic or substantive, as she struck all the wrong notes if she was trying to calm the situation in her embattled city. Her stern and sometimes ominous words—Lam warned the territory was on the “path of no return”—seemed aimed at an audience of one: Communist...

In the United States there is a significant amount of criticism on the political left towards the Electoral College Voting System. The ones making this argument normally state that the “winning takes all” measure creates a bias against minorities, destroying the country’s popular vote. Critics use the 2016 election as an example, when President Trump lost the popular vote but got elected by the Electoral College. What some Americans do not know is that some countries adopt pulsory voting system,...

Samuel Gregg, director of research at the Acton Institute, released a new book titled, Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization. In his book, Gregg discusses the dangers that an unbalanced relationship between faith and reason imposes on a society. The Daily Caller, a widely read news and opinion outlet, reviewed Gregg’s new book in an article titled, “New Book Emphasizes the Importance of Faith and Reason for Western Civilization.” The article provides a brief synopsis of the book...

On September 14, 1974, economist Arthur Laffer and three friends had the most productive cocktail discussion in U.S. history. On that day, Laffer famously sketched his U-shaped theory of taxation on a cocktail napkin. It came at the height of the Keynesian ascendancy, just three years after President Richard Nixon proclaimed, “I am now a Keynesian in economics” and as his successor proposed a tax increase. Laffer argued that higher tax rates produce higher tax revenues, but only up to...

Earlier this year I had the honor of moderating a panel discussion, “Common Grace, Community, and Culture,” at the Kuyper Conference at Calvin College and Seminary. The discussion featured J. Daryl Charles, with whom I have the pleasure of coediting the Common Grace volumes in the Kuyper series, Vincent Bacote of Wheaton College, and Jessica Joustra of Redeemer University College and TU Kampen. It was a wide-ranging and substantive discussion. The video is now available and mend it to you:...

The presidential primary debates kicked off last night in Miami as 10 Democratic candidates made their appeal to the American people. Tonight, 10 more(!) will take the stage for a two-hour exchange of sound bites. If you watched any of the debates (or heard about them after) and have any opinion about political or social issues you will e to the conclusion that at least one (if not most or all) of the candidates were wrong about the facts. It...