GDP (i.e., gross domestic product) is the market value of all finished goods and services, produced within a country in a year. When people talk about how “the economy” is doing they are usually referring to GDP. GDP isn’t the most important thing in life, but it is an important measure of our standard of living, helps us know if we’re ‘better off’ than before, and is correlated with many of the non-monetary improvements that contribute to human flourishing. Recently,...

An interesting perspective from which to study the history of the conservative movement is the relationship of conservatives to education. Every true conservative is, at some level, invested in tradition. Since Edmund Burke, modern Kirkean conservatives and classical liberals have held that historical experience is a primary guide to political life and that the survival of any society depends mostly on the transmission of this accumulated experience. It should, therefore, be considered natural for conservatives to be at the forefront...

Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The celebrated novelist and dissident is considered by many to be a key figure in the demise munism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Daniel J. Mahoney says, “Solzhenitsyn embodied, in thought as well as deed, the two great moral wellsprings of European civilization: humility and magnanimity, humble deference to an ‘order of things’ and the spirited defense of human liberty and dignity.” In honor of his...

When debating entitlement reform, any critic of the status quo will be quick to remember the infamous 2012 mercial wherein Rep. Paul Ryan pushes his grandmother over a cliff. For some, the ad was typical political-hardball-turned-cultural-meme; for others, it remains a haunting reminder of the vilification one is bound to endure by asking even the tamest questions about frightening math. It’s mon cultural confusion—that we must choose between lofty humanitarian goals and grounded economic realism. The reality, of course, is...

On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Senior Editor at Acton, Rev. Ben Johnson, speaks with the Director of the Center for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, Rev. Richard Turnbull, about the role the Church should take in the market and how that has played out specifically in the UK. After that, Producer Caroline Roberts speaks with Acton’s librarian and research associate, Dan Hugger, about the life and work of the Acton Institute’s namesake, Lord Acton. Check out these additional resources...

Secularism separates all things, says Rev. Anthony Perkins in this week’s Acton Commentary, even sacred ones, from their source and turns them into objects. These are difficult times that divide Christians from their neighbors and from one another. In large part this is because we do not agree on how to relate with secular culture and which parts of it, if any, can be blessed. Eastern Orthodox theologian and ethicist Vigen Guroian’s new analysis of secularism and how it insulates...

What’s going on in France? For the past two months, a protest movement known as Gilets Jaunes (the Yellow Vests) has rocked France. The French government has considered imposing a state of emergency to prevent a recurrence of some of the worst civil unrest in more than a decade. What are theGilets Jaunes protesting? The protests were started to oppose a “green tax” increase on gasoline and diesel fuel. The taxes are part of an environmental measure to encourage reduction...

At City Journal, Solzhenitsyn scholar Daniel J. Mahoney offers “A Centennial Tribute” marking the 100th anniversary of the Russian author’s birth. Mahoney, who holds the Augustine Chair in Distinguished Scholarship at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, describes Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as “the century’s greatest critic of the totalitarian immolation of liberty and human dignity.” The Russian novelist and historian was … … a thinker and moral witness who illumined the fate of the human soul hemmed in by barbed wire in...

Since the 1960s, Brazilian foreign policy has an undistinguished history, and has gradually been reduced to the pursuit of ideological leftism. This was not always the case. During the imperial regime (1824-1889), Brazilian diplomacy policy was known for the high-quality of its members, for their ability to read politics, for negotiating talent and, above all, for their fidelity to the interests of Brazil. Paulino José Soares de Sousa, the Viscount of Uruguay, Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, the Marquis of Parana,...

Since the British population decided to strike a coup in the liberal political establishment voting for the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (Brexit), Westminster is in a political crisis. David Cameron resigned after the referendum’s e, and Theresa May’s government is burning in flames, and no one knows if she will survive a vote of confidence initiated by conservative backbenchers. To understand the political drama of the modern United Kingdom and Brexit, one must understand the significance of...