James M. Patterson and Thomas D. Howes’s Why Postliberalism Failed argues that postliberalism’s rejection of individual agency, liberal democracy, economic freedom, and subsidiarity in favor of ...

Anti-federalist Robert Yates (under the pseudonym Brutus) argues against the constitution, foreseeing many of the expansions of federal power. To the Citizens of the State of New York, The first ...

Libertarianism.org is the Cato Institute’s treasury of resources about the theory and history of liberty. We offer a wealth of original essays and classic reprints by great classical liberals and ...

The subject divides itself into first, “The Alien Act,” secondly, “The Sedition Act.” Of the “Alien act,” it is affirmed by the resolution, 1st. That it exercises a power no where delegated to the ...

Early anarchist thinkers blurred the line between socialist and capitalist. Libertarians’ interest in anarchism is complicated by anarchism’s historic association with the radical left. Read more ...

How a group of veterans restored democracy to a small town. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” is a quote commonly, and incorrectly, attributed to Thomas Jefferson. It was, in fact, never ...

On Liberty is not merely a political text explaining the intricacies of how the state ought to act. It is a love letter to the individual virtues of intellectual curiosity, tolerance, and ...

For Aristotle private property was about more than economic gains. Budding students of philosophy are usually advised to start with the Greeks. When people say the Greeks, they typically mean Plato ...

In his first essay in a new series on John Locke, Smith explains some essential features of Locke’s case for private property. My last essay discussed John Locke’s theory of a negative commons. This ...

Libertarians frequently disagree about the status of intellectual property. D’Amato explores the views of four major libertarian thinkers. The issue of intellectual property rights represents a ...

Did Adam Smith—celebrated hero of free trade—make a big exception for reasons of national defense? Would he support the Jones Act of today? Caleb Petitt argues that a careful reading of Smith on the ...

The Ancient Roman Cicero’s idea of natural law has much to teach us about the evolution of liberty Studying Cicero offers us key insights into both the development of modern western theories of ...