December 8, 2009
The Way Out of 'Soft Despotism'
By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
More than 170 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville warned Americans of an emerging danger to democracy: "soft despotism." This insidious threat, the French political thinker ...
November 30, 2009
Rejecting Principles in the Name of Progress
By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
The health reform debate has sparked numerous questions about the cost and scope of government involvement in health care. But few members of Congress have ...
November 25, 2009
Revolutionary Truths That Work
By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
When upstart settlers of the New World proclaimed their independence in 1776, they represented but 13 small and fractious colonies carved from a vast wilderness ...
November 3, 2009
The Rediscovery of America: Here's the Best Ground from Which to Repulse the Whole Progressive Project
By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
By any measure, the United States of America is a great nation. Thirteen colonies are now 50 states covering a vast continent and beyond. The ...
October 8, 2009
The Threat to Self-Government: Examining the History and Legality of Executive Branch Czars
By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
The rise of government by bureaucrats--due to the delegation of power from Congress to administrative agencies, combined with the removal of those agencies from the ...
February 24, 2009
Progressivism and the New Science of Jurisprudence
By Bradley C. S. Watson
(First Principles #0024)
Progressivism in its jurisprudential guise is rooted not in constitutional text, tradition, logic, or structure, but in the judge’s view of which necessities are most ...
November 20, 2007
The Birth of the Administrative State: Where It Came From and What It Means for Limited Government
By Ronald J. Pestritto, Ph.D.
(First Principles #16)
The ideas that gave rise to what is today called "the administrative state" are fundamentally at odds with those that gave rise to our Constitution. ...
July 18, 2007
The Progressive Movement and the Transformation of American Politics
By Thomas G. West and William A. Schambra
(First Principles #12)
Although material circumstances and politicians' self-interest helped to make America what it is today, the most important cause was a change in the prevailing understanding ...