Politics

How Laws Are Passed, Maintained, and Changed

by George Leef October 1, 2014

Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers: The Economic Engine of Political Change by Wayne A. Leighton and Edward J. Lopez (Stanford Economics and Finance 2013), 209 pages. Have you ever wondered why democracies so often generate public policies that are wasteful and unjust? Have you asked why such policies persist over long periods, even when they are known to ...

TGIF: What Social Animals Owe to Each Other

by Sheldon Richman April 18, 2014

If I were compelled to summarize the libertarian philosophy’s distinguishing feature while standing on one foot, I’d say the following: Every person owes it to all other persons not to aggress against them. This is known as the nonaggression principle, or NAP. What is the nature of this obligation? The first thing to notice is that it is unchosen. I never ...

FFF Webinar: Don’t Rock the Vote (video)

by Sheldon Richman April 17, 2014

On April 16, 2014, FFF vice president and editor Sheldon Richman hosted a free, interactive online webinar entitled “Don't Rock the Vote.” This was an interactive experience with Sheldon and was limited to 24 participants.  

TGIF: Don’t Get Out the Vote

by Sheldon Richman February 14, 2014

A seminar student once became upset with me for suggesting that instead of running get-out-the-vote campaigns, the government should keep the dates of elections and the locations of polling places secret so that only people with enough initiative and interest to ferret out the information could vote. It was not a serious suggestion, but the college-aged young woman didn’t catch ...

Exit over Voice

by Alexander William Salter January 1, 2014

By what standard should we judge collective decision-making? In the liberal-democratic tradition, the overwhelming consensus affirms the supremacy of process. On this view, the justness and efficacy of collective decision-making depend on the inclusiveness of the process. That concern, what philosophers and social scientists call “voice,” has manifested itself in many familiar and important ways, chiefly through an expansion ...

Politicians as Interchangeable Units

by Wendy McElroy November 8, 2013

Why did it take a comedian to demand answers about a blatant double standard embedded in Obamacare? On October 7, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was grilled mercilessly by Jon Stewart, who focused on why businesses can delay enrollment for a year but individuals cannot. Stewart speculated on the reason, saying, “Geez, it looks like ...

Don’t Look for Grown-Ups in Government

by Sheldon Richman October 16, 2013

With the government partially closed for over two weeks now and the debt-ceiling deadline upon us, the pundits are demanding that the “grown-ups in the room” finally put a stop to the childish goings-on in Washington. That would be nice — except there are no grown-ups in the room. If you seek evidence, just look around. Politicians, from President Barack ...

JFK’s War With the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated, Part 1

by Douglas Horne August 5, 2013

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 Introduction I served on the staff of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) from August of 1995 through September of 1998, during the final three years of ...

Obama’s Bid for Unilateral Power over Elections

by Wendy McElroy May 14, 2013

“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.” — Joseph Stalin (1923), as quoted in The Memoirs of Stalin’s Former Secretary by Boris Bazhanov. To glimpse the political future of America, turn off the news, ignore public statements from officials, and ...

The Calling: The Problem with Political Heroes and Villains

by Steven Horwitz May 9, 2013

It’s sometimes hard to tell the coverage of politics from the coverage of sports. People seem to root for political parties as though they were sports teams, cheering Team Red or Team Blue on to victory with the same passion they bring to the Super Bowl. Individual team members are followed with the same intensity as are star players ...

Obama, Union Buster?

by Wendy McElroy May 1, 2013

Organized labor has been a bedrock of President Obama’s political power. How far will he go to preserve support from this key Democratic constituency? On April 16, the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers (UURWAW) became the first union to officially call for the repeal of Obama’s signature legislation — the Affordable Care Act, also known as ...

The Motives of Public Officials

by Scott McPherson March 18, 2013

It is not uncommon for critics of the free market to allege that for-profit providers of services have an interest, not in solving problems, but rather in prolonging them. Why would the medical industry cure cancer, heart disease, or AIDS, for example, when it would just be putting itself out of business? This argument essentially hinges on the notion that ...