Political Theory

The heart of Samuel Francis's brilliant criticism of contemporary American conservatism is found in his essay "The Other Side of Modernism", included in the present collection.

Just a few years ago we had a bicentennial celebration of the Constitution. Republicanism and federalism, the two most salient features of the Constitution, were never mentioned. Instead we had a glorification of multiculturalism and the central state. 

The customary approach to immigration by libertarians has been a simple one.

The cords that bind the Union together are weaker than they have been in more than a century. Many states are entering into political revolt against federal encroachment. But this situation is no departure from American tradition. Revolting against consolidated government has been a key to keeping the government in check.

When discussing the secession of Quebec from the Rest of Canada (ROC), many Anglo-Canadian economists become doomsday preachers of apocalyptic scenarios. They predict social calamities such as poverty, mass unemployment, civil war, and mass exodus.

They should settle down, try to be rational, and focus on the only real issue: the long-term economic well-being of Quebecois and Canadians.

Michael Lind maintains that intellectual conservatism collapsed over the past decade.

David Frum has identified a central problem affecting much of the American Right. 

American government, we are told, is notable for its stability. And so it seems, at least on the surface. But stability over a long period, as the Russian tsars could tell us, is no guarantee of permanence. And the tsars fell very suddenly after ruling far longer than the U.S. government's two centuries.

Riots in the streets; protest against a hated government; cops arresting protesters. A familiar story these days. But suddenly we find that the protests are directed, not against a hated Communist tyranny in Eastern Europe, but against Mrs. Thatcher's regime in Britain, a supposed paragon of liberty and the free market.

The sudden collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe has amazed and elated the West. But what does it mean? If Communism has lost, what has won?