As we’ve seen in countries like Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, Latin American left-leaning populists are quite content to work in democratic systems—until, that is, those systems start delivering results which they don’t like. The same dynamic is now unfolding in another Latin American country. Evo Morales has been President of Bolivia since 2006. A strong admirer of the late Hugo Chavez, Morales stood for a fourth five-year term on 20 October, having unilaterally abolished term-limits, despite voters rejecting his bid...

In a mentary, Trey Dimsdale looks at winsome celebrity jurists Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Brenda Hale, heroines of the left wing project to change how constitutional law is understood in the United States and the United Kingdom. The careers of these jurists raise questions about the proper role of those who sit on the bench, Dimsdale writes. The approach adopted by Hale and Ginsburg should be viewed with skepticism rather than celebration. Of course, injustice may be reflected in a...

One of the most plaints against capitalism holds that real wages have stagnated since the 1970s. Meanwhile, CEOs such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos earn more money than ever. The charge surfaced as recently as the fourth Democratic presidential debate, last Tuesday. “As a result of taking away the rights of working people and organized labor, people haven’t had a raise – 90 percent of Americans have not had a raise for 40 years,” said Tom Steyer (whose earnings rank somewhat...

With the end-of-the-year string of holidays fast approaching, we already see decorations and supplies showing up in stores, whether for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or even Christmas. Most people would likely peg me for a bit of a holiday Scrooge. When es to Advent, for example, I’m critical of some of the consumeristic excess and the disruption of the liturgical calendar. I consider Advent a penitential season of fasting and abstinence—not exactly things we’d associate with Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays—and I...

This is the sixth in a series of essays on Peter Drucker’s early works. Peter Drucker recognized the revolutionary aspect of the corporate form. The older corporations wielded something close to sovereign authority as they essentially ruled the territory wherever they traded and planted. Other corporations followed by exploiting natural monopolies such as bridges and utilities. But the new corporation, the corporation of the modern era, is a different sort of thing. Modern corporations arise when individuals delegate their private...

In our pursuit of economic prosperity and progress, we tend to focus heavily on the role of the entrepreneur—and rightly so. Many of the world’s most transformative discoveries e from people willing to take significant risks and endure painful sacrifices to bring new enterprises to life. When es to our theology of work, our focus tends toward much of the same. Indeed, from a Christian perspective, the call of the entrepreneur provides a uniquely vivid example of how our economic...

The new super villain drama ‘Joker’ has shattered box office records and gained much controversial media attention along the way. Set to top $900 million worldwide, the dark film from director Todd Phillips and actor Joaquin Phoenix is already being heralded as the biggest R-rated movie ever. So why has ‘Joker’ been such a hit? Christian Toto, award winning movie critic and editor at Hollywood in Toto, breaks it down, explaining how the film touches on themes like mental illness,...

Last night I gave an address at The Grand Castle in Grandville, Michigan on the occasioning of its library opening. I spoke on the importance of books and libraries. As the Librarian and a Research Associate at the Acton Institute it is a topic of professional interest but is also an abiding private passion. Managing the library and doing editorial work on publications means that I deal in books from their conception to natural death, from womb to tomb as...

Some passages of the Bible tell the rich to weep and wail because of their wealth. But these verses can mislead Christians whose attitude to wealth is not deeply rooted in the Christian church’s 2,000-year-long balanced view, according to a new, French-language article published on the Acton Institute’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website. This article is part of the Acton Institute’s ongoing effort to reach the 275 million people in the world who speak French as a native language. mentary...

On October 15th, the Acton Institute celebrated its 29th anniversary with a dinner at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The keynote address for the evening was delivered by Andrew Klavan, the award-winning author and screenwriter. Klavan shared the story of his journey from atheism to faith in Jesus Christ, and laid out his views on how to reach out to a culture that has largely abandoned not only Biblical truth, but the very idea of truth itself....