Among the most influential critics of the free market on the Right is Patrick Deneen, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame. Acton Institute Senior Research Fellow Michael Matheson Miller has published a response in Law & Liberty to Deneen’s recent plea for a national policy to favor munities (“Thinking Big to Act Small” in the American Compass). Miller writes that he shares Deneen’s belief in decentralization, the problems of individualism, the shallow nature of consumerism, and...

It is a universally acknowledged truth that there are deep-seated problems with social media. Academics have written books against it; once venerable institutions are being torn asunder by it; individuals are being demonized on it; and all the while, we are spending more and more of our lives on it. Social media firms are keenly aware of the problem and are trying, in ham-fisted and halfhearted ways, to address it. Venkatesh Roa, founder and editor-in-chief of the blog ribbonfarm, gives...

The problem with bad ideas is that they never remain merely ideas. Once they attract sufficient – not always majority – support, bad ideas e codified into worse laws, which afflict whole societies. We are witnessing that process now over a misguided notion of how important “race,” ethnicity, and other identifiable factors are to the value of the human person. Consider the answer of science and Western civilization to what makes us uniquely human. The noblest part of a creature...

Since late May, many parts of the United States have grappled with unrest. Anger over George Floyd’s death sparked protests, with looting and violent riots breaking out, as well. Protesters have also been defacing and tearing down statues across the country, including statues of Confederate leaders, as well as monuments to George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and even abolitionists. The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), also dubbed the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), was a six-block area in Seattle where...

This week, June 29, was the solemn feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The Apostle Peter is remembered for many things: his declaration of Jesus as the Messiah; his boasting of fidelity, followed by his threefold denial of Christ; and his subsequent repentance and heroic martyrdom The late French anthropologist and former Stanford professor Rene Girard has an insightful discussion about the denial of Peter and the problem of scapegoating and contagion. He sees in it an archetype of the...

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue admirably defended religious liberty, school choice, and parental rights. However, the court may have also paved the way for teachers unions and hostile politicians to undermine that victory. On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that excluding religious schools from a privately-funded, state-established scholarship program is an “infringement on free exercise” of religion and is “fatally underinclusive” by denying benefits to people of faith. “Discrimination against religious...

Judicial activism is a transatlantic problem. Thus, it requires a transatlantic analysis. The Acton Institute has helped link English-speaking citizens concerned with preserving the Constitution in a conversation with the world’s 270 million Francophones. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act included sexual orientation and gender identity, paving the way for new rounds of lawsuits and potentially rendering it impossible for some employers to operate their businesses in accordance with their faith. The justices’...

This week we’re rebroadcasting a conversation about religious liberty with Ryan T. Anderson, the William E. Simon senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, that was first released on the podcast in April of 2015. In the intervening five years since we first aired this episode, much has changed in our conversations on religious liberty – but much is still the same. While the focus is no longer on Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act as it was in 2015, religious...

In the latest issue of The New Yorker Larissa MacFarquhar has a deeply researched and beautifully written story, “How Prosperity Transformed the Falklands.” It chronicles the history of the Falkland Islands from the early settlement of the then-uninhabited islands to the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982, as well as the economic transformation after that conflict. It is an economic success story but also a meditation on what makes munity and nation and how rapid economic...

When the first wave of COVID-19 hit the United States, Americans were generally sympathetic to the various lockdowns. Yes, we were likely to endure significant economic pain, but given how little we knew about the virus and how great the risks could be, we were willing to accept the cost. Now, after months of mismanaged responses, contradictory analyses, and flip-flopping guidance from our esteemed sources, trust in our leaders and institutions is wearing thin. Despite all that we have learned,...