Can a party that claims the mantle of conservatism be an unconstitutional party? This appears to be a contradiction, even a paradox, yet it is one that Daniel Pitt’s The Conservative Party and the Constitution: Policies, Paradigms, and Silence confronts directly. Originating in Pitt’s PhD research at the University of Hull, the book provides a much-needed analysis of how Britain’s...

　　Rereading the 9/11 Commission Report triggers a flood of memories for anyone over 30. The “just-the-facts” description of the attacks brings back the agony and heartbreak of that terrible day and the days following as we searched desperately for the victims and then laid them to rest. 　　Looking back, the Report’s recommendations seem a bit underwhelming and even naïve (for...

　　I’ve always had great respect for the people who signed on for military service after September 11, 2001. They don’t get many accolades, because America is in the midst of an identity crisis, feels little pleasure in memories of Iraq or Afghanistan, and is even inclined to wonder whether we brought that pain on ourselves with all that incomprehensible meddling...

　　Everyone with a plan to fix Congress wants to help it legislate again by making it easier for lawmakers to compromise. Some call for electing more moderates to serve in the House and Senate. And others want to empower party leaders to impose deadlines, block amendments, and limit debate. But they all share the same underlying goal: produce consensus before...

　　Daron Acemoglu won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2024 and is the third most cited economist of all time. Thus, the paradox of his new book, What Happened to Liberal Democracy?, is that its most serious analytic failures are economic. He provides a sincere and serious consideration of modern liberalism’s estrangement from the working class. But when he moves...

　　Much hinges on the liberty to build. A man who can’t build a factory loses his liberty to run a manufacturing business. A man who can’t find a house in his hometown (because they’ve outlawed building houses) loses his liberty to live, work, and raise his family there. Law and liberty come to a head at the local planning commission....

　　On August 20, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) of Massachusetts held in Fitzmaurice v. Quincy that the town of Quincy would likely violate the Massachusetts Constitution if it installed two statues of religious figures on the façade of the city’s new public safety building. As designed, one statue was to depict Saint Michael the Archangel; the other was to depict...

　　The ongoing “trade war” between the United States and Canada ratcheted up a few notches when the Canadian delegation pulled out of recent trade talks and the Canadian government responded to US tariffs by imposing its own. Mark Carney, Canada’s competent prime minister, heightened the stakes by claiming that this dispute threatens the very idea of Canadian independence and raises...

　　In 2012, I visited Hong Kong and Macau. Among the many examples of industrial might, such as shipyards and grandiose buildings like the Hong Kong airport, two of the things that impressed me the most were a real estate complex in Macau and the bridge, then under construction, between Macau and Hong Kong. I remember wondering how it was possible...

　　The First Amendment is 45 words long, and for most of American history nobody was entirely sure what they meant. The Supreme Court did not squarely apply the Free Speech Clause against the states until 1925. The modern architecture of American speech protection—the doctrines governing incitement, defamation, prior restraint, public forums—was substantially built between 1964 and 1974. Measured against the...

　　For more than fifty years, Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. has challenged progressive orthodoxy within and outside of the academy. A political theorist of the first rank, he is also a seasoned practitioner of traditional political science. The latter is an approach inspired by Aristotle’s Politics that takes its bearings from the perspective of citizens and statesmen, and never simply leaves...

　　It feels strange to write publicly in defense of not being public. I’m convinced that life’s most important activities almost always take place in spheres that are more or less private, where cameras are absent and nobody is reporting. Until quite recently, churches, classrooms, and family homes were just such sanctuaries from the world. We didn’t worry about image or...