Understanding our political heritage is a vital part of building a stronger America for the next generation. The principles of America’s Founders must be restored to their proper role in the public and political discourse, influencing public policy and reforming government to reflect constitutional limits.
Understanding America explores how the United States’ commitment to the universal truths of human equality and the right to self-government—as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence—requires a vigilant defense of the cause of liberty, both at home and abroad. Read More.
"We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future," written by Heritage's Matthew Spalding, offers a bracingly fresh analysis of how and why we have lost our bearings as a nation. Read More.
Few members of Congress have bothered to ask what the Constitution has to say on health care -- even though they are sworn to uphold the principles articulated in that document. Read More.
Throughout history, as in many other parts of the world today, political rule was the privilege of the strongest or the most powerful. Property was the possession of kings, barons, and lords. Each was born to his or her destiny, and almost all were subject to someone else. …
Abstract: The Constitution establishes a federated republic in which government sovereignty is divided between federal and state institutions. From the outset, this division introduced into American politics an element of ambiguity over the proper relation between the federal…
Abstract: The triumph of the administrative state has been made possible by the emasculation of the legislative power. Washington’s problem is not merely federal spending and debt; it is the arrogance of centralized power. The time is therefore ripe for a major national discussion…
Abstract: The United States was born out of a popular revolt against a distant and autocratic government, and its model has always been based around the maximum decentralization and democratization of power. Now that model is being abandoned. The policies currently being pursued amount…
Abstract: Freedom of religion is at the heart of the American understanding of liberty. Under our constitutional order, the free exercise of religion is not a mere matter of toleration but an inalienable natural right. As George Washington explained in his famous…
With an increase in the national response to terrorism, many people believe the principle of federalism has little utility today or that states do not have much to contribute in counterterrorism policy or activity. When it comes to domestic security, however, federalism is more relevant than ever, and the states…
Last month, the House and Senate passed, by overwhelming majorities, different versions of a bill entitled the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act).[1] The bills would acknowledge that the insider trading laws apply to federal officials. The Senate version would also reach other perceived public corruption…
Last month, Congress considered two different versions of a bill—the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act)[1]—that would make clear that the federal insider trading laws apply to federal officials. The Senate and House of Representatives have passed different versions of the STOCK Act,…
Conservatives have been fighting a long and lonely fight for the idea of balancing the federal budget without raising the tax burden on the American people. Conservatives have also been fighting to repeal ObamaCare. Sadly, some are too timid to take these fights to liberals in Congress.The tea…
The archbishop of Philadelphia. The president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The head of the Union for Traditional Judaism. What do these three eminent religious leaders have in common? They’re among more than 300 distinguished individuals who have signed a statement by the Becket Fund for Religious…
Progressivism was the reform movement that ran from the late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century, during which leading intellectuals and social reformers in the United States sought to address the economic, political, and cultural questions that had arisen in the context of the rapid changes brought with the Industrial Revolution…
An excerpt from The Heritage Guide to the Constitution The Constitution of the United States has endured for over two centuries. It remains the object of reverence for nearly all Americans and an object of admiration by peoples around the world. William Gladstone was right in 1878 when he…
POLITICAL LESSONS Sir Rhodes Boyson Margaret Thatcher has her place in world as well as British history. Her very name is used to denote a way of thinking: Thatcherism. She herself was not an original thinker, and on her resignation the editor of the Daily Telegraph described Thatcherism as a powerful…
While this is my first visit to Mainland China, I have visited Hong Kong and Taiwan many times over the last 30 years, drawn to this nation and its people by their important place in world politics and human history. Much of what I know about China I…
When the Constitution was sent to the states for ratification in 1787, many citizens worried that the new national government proposed by the document was a Leviathan in waiting. During the crucial New York ratification debate, James Madison, writing as Publius, sought to allay these fears in the 45th Federalist Paper by emphasizing that…
For those who hold the Constitution of the United States in high regard and who are concerned about the fate of its principles in our contemporary practice of government, the modern state ought to receive significant attention. The reason for this is that the ideas that gave rise to what is today called "the administrative…
Mutual aid was one of the cornerstones of social welfare in the United States until the early 20th century. The fraternal society was a leading example. The statistical record of fraternalism was impressive. A conservative estimate is that one-third of adult American males belonged to lodges in 1910. A fraternal analogue existed for virtually…
Partly as a consequence of President Bush's democracy initiative in Iraq and the greater Middle East-the "forward strategy of freedom," as he calls it-the ideas of natural rights on which our government is based have achieved a prominence that they have not enjoyed in American politics at least since the civil rights movement. This President…
This Fourth of July marks the 225th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This occasion is a great opportunity to renew our dedication to the principles of liberty and equality enshrined in what Thomas Jefferson called "the declaratory charter of our rights." …
Abstract: The seemingly unstoppable growth of the federal government has led to a revival, in some circles, of the discredited notion of nullification as a legitimate constitutional mechanism for states to reassert their sovereign powers. Proponents of this…
Abstract: Early Progressives co-opted Abraham Lincoln’s legacy to justify their program of expansive government powers over American life. In so doing, they obscured how their philosophy of government broke with Lincoln and the Founding to which he was heir. Nevertheless, much conservative and libertarian…
Abstract: A neo-Reaganite grand strategy offers the surest guide for restoring and sustaining American greatness in the 21st century. It incorporates the principles of the Founding without slighting the perennial imperatives of power and geopolitics. It inoculates us…
Palm Beach State College activities director (and Michael Moore Facebook fan) Olivia Morris-Ford is on camera shutting...…
Associate Director, B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics
Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought, B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics
Research Fellow
Visiting Fellow, B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics
Research Associate and Program Manager, B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics
Vice President, American Studies and Director, B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics