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Cato Unbound: Conservative-Libertarian Fusionism
Cato Unbound: Conservative-Libertarian Fusionism
Mar 16, 2026 10:48 AM

I’m a contributor to this month’s edition of Cato Unbound, on the topic of “Conservative-Libertarian Fusionism.”

The forum consists of four lead essays from the panelists followed by ad hoc discussion. The first four essays are up:

“The State of the Debate” by Jacqueline Otto“An Unequal Treaty” by Jeremy Kolassa“The Death of Fusionism” by Clark Ruper“Against Confusionism: Liberty and Civil Society” by Jordan Ballor

Read more about the contributors and be sure to check out the pieces and follow the discussion over at Cato Unbound.

I don’t plan to update with new posts at the PowerBlog as the discussion develops, but I will add updates to this post as appropriate, so if you want to discuss, ments here are the best place to do that.

Update (5/21/13): I follow up and ask some questions about history and liberty. As Lord Acton said, “History is a great innovator and breaker of idols.” But if conservatives and libertarians differ on their views of tradition, what might that mean for the significance of history?

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