Occasional Papers
Occasional Papers (OP) are short publications usually based on a lecture or presentation given at the CIS. Our annual John Bonython and Acton Lectures are part of the OP series.
Categories
After the Welfare State: Politicians Stole Your Future … You Can Get It Back
History, economics, sociology, political science, and mathematics are the tools to understand and evaluate welfare states, rather than emotional responses or conspiracy theories. This little book, edited... Read More
Re-moralising the Welfare State
The welfare state should be fair as well as caring. Fairness requires that claimants are not treated more favourably than people who work; that more deserving cases are treated differently from less deserving... Read More
What Kind of Religion Is Free in the Public Square? A Warning from the United States
In the 14th Acton Lecture, Dr Ryan Messmore, President of Campion College, asks what kind of religion is free in the public square and whether we have a strong, public expression of religious belief or... Read More
Capitalism and Virtue: Reaffirming Old Truths
In the 2012 Annual John Bonython Lecture, eminent political scientist Charles Murray describes the larger historical forces that have been at work in the United States (and, to a lesser extent, Australia)... Read More
Moral Wisdom and the Recovery of Virtue
What are the moral skills we need to cultivate to live effectively in the social media world of the twenty-first century public square? In an address given at Consilium in 2012, Peter Kurti proposes the... Read More
Leadership, Liberty and the Crisis of Authority
In the 27th John Bonython Lecture, Frank Furedi discussed the distinct lack of leadership needed to deal with the many crises facing the world in the 21st century and replace the society’s addiction... Read More
You Can’t Say That! Freedom of Speech and the Invisible Muzzle
This collection of four speeches warns against the increasing restrictions on free speech in a world being taken over by political correctness. Ostensibly a tool for civility and respect, political correctness... Read More
The Kingdom of God is Forcefully Advancing and Forceful Men Lay Hold of It
In the CIS’s annual Acton Lecture on Religion and Freedom, Senator David Coltart discusses the application of biblical standards to foreign policy in terms of moral values: forsaking violence as means... Read More
The Multi-layered Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek was one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century. His contributions ranged from economics to philosophy, from law to psychology. This collection of essays aims to rediscover... Read More
Reconciling Modernity and Tradition in a Liberal Society
The distinction between traditional and modern is not a very useful one for understanding the problems confronting liberal society, or for working out how to address them because the contrast does not... Read More
Ludwig von Mises – A Primer
In Ludwig von Mises – A Primer, Eamonn Butler presents a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the outstanding achievements of one of the greatest economists and political scientists of the twentieth... Read More
Constitutional Conservatism
In The Centre for Independent Studies’ annual Acton Lecture on Religion and Freedom, Hoover Institution scholar Dr Peter Berkowitz discusses the much debated relationship between religion and politics... Read More
Invisible Hand versus Visible Fist: Securing the Future Wealth of Nations
In the 25th John Bonython Lecture, PJ O'Rourke presents his views of the economic and financial crisis that is shaking the world. PJ O'Rourke's answer to a decline in the value of speculative assets?... Read More
Neoliberalism: The Genesis of a Political Swearword
Neoliberalism is one of the most commonly used words in political debates. Despite this, the origins of neoliberalism are hardly known. Nor does there appear to be a generally accepted definition of... Read More
The Role of Government in a Liberal Society
Modern government has grown out of all proportion, becoming a serious threat to life, liberty, property and the public interest. Read More
Must Religion be a Threat to Liberty?
Does Christianity destroy or defend freedom? Answering this question, Fr Robert A. Sirico turns to the foundations of Christianity. Read More
Adam Smith - A Primer
Despite his fame, there is still widespread ignorance about the breadth of Adam Smith's contrinbutions to economics, politics and philosophy. In Adam Smith - A Primer Eamonn Butler provides an authoritative... Read More
Do Secular Societies Promote Religious Extremism?
In the Annual Acton Lecture Tom Frame looks at secularism in society. He concludes that in a genuinely secular society all must recognise and respect the opinions of those with whom they disagree. They... Read More
Milton Friedman: A Tribute
Nobel-Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman died in late 2006. In March 2007, the CIS hosted a tribute to Friedman and his contribution to Australia's political and economic life. This Occasional Paper... Read More
Religion and Politics: Contemporary Tensions
Religion has always been important but the decline in Christian practice in recent decades led to a widespread assumption of religion’s decline in civic and political life. However, according to Paul... Read More
History as the Story of Liberty: A Globalised Western Civilisation
In this lecture, Dr Herman explores how a prosperous and culturally diverse world depends on the human freedoms embedded in a globalised Western civilisation. Read More
Farewell to Liberty, Equality and Fraternity: Is the Left still on the Left?
In this Occasional Paper translated by Wolfgang Kasper, two German analysts, Dirk Maxeiner and Michael Miersch argue that the Left's classical aspirations have long been realised in all mature welfare... Read More
Sensory Order and Economic Order: The links between human cognition and economic freedom in Hayek's thought.
In this paper, Julie Novak illustrates the connection between The Sensory Order and Hayek's economic thought. His psychological theories were profound in understanding how human beings acquire and communicate... Read More
The Wealth of Generations:Capitalism and the Belief in the Future
In this John Bonython Lecture, with optimism and humour, Johan Norberg looks forward to a future which can only improve with greater freedom, increased knowledge, wealth and technology on our side. Read More
Smothering By the Security Blanket: Risk, Responsibility and the Role of Government
To what extent can the government manage risk in our society without smothering self-responsibility and impinging on personal liberties? Conde outlines strategies for reducing risks citing examples of... Read More
Conspicuous Compassion: Why sometimes it really is cruel to be kind
This book by Patrick West challenges the trend towards dramatic public displays of 'concern' which have very little to do with genuine compassion. Such displays of empathy do not change the world for the... Read More
Rendering Unto Caesar: New Challenges for Church and State
In considering contemporary church-state relations, Gregg argues that religious communities need to reassess their role, and suggests that the future focus of faith communities in pluralist societies should... Read More
Christian Morality and Market Capitalism: Friends or Foes?
In the 5th Annual CIS Acton Lecture on Religion & Freedom, Ian Harper explores the moral basis of market capitalism––its strengths and weaknesses––and defends the view that there is nothing... Read More
Islam in Pluralist Indonesia
In this, The Acton Lecture on Religion and Freedom for 2002, noted Indonesian academic Mohammad Fajrul Falaakh discusses the importance and interpretations of Shariah (Islamic law) and asks whether Islam... Read More
The Social Foundations of a Free Society
A look at five main areas where current trends may be eroding the free society - family life, schooling, community relations, the welfare state, and the values, norms and beliefs that comprise our common... Read More
Dangerous Protections: How Some Ways of Protecting the Freedom of Religion May Actually Diminish Religious Freedom.
The 2001 Acton Lecture on Religion and Freedom delivered by Robert Forsyth. Sometimes efforts to achieve good can backfire, especially where government legislation is concerned. Read More
The Moral Foundations of Freedom: Lessons from the Religious Encounter with Democracy
What happens when a society loses it moral capital? Can democracy thrive in a value-neutral environment? These are just some of the questions asked by one of America’s most respected theologians and... Read More
A Short History of Australian Liberalism
This study was written in response to what I see as the misleading nature of the studies of Australian liberalism that have been produced to date. Read More
Economics & Ethics: The Dispute and the Dialogue
The relationship between economists and religious thinkers is often acrimonious. In this Occasional Paper, an economist Professor Ian Harper and a theologian Dr Samuel Gregg examine some of the causes... Read More
Principles for a Free Society
The need for a principled reconciliation between the prerogatives of individual liberty and social order has been a central preoccupation of classical liberal philosophy. Professor Richard Epstein of the... Read More
Religion and Liberty: Western Experiences, Asian Possibilities
In this CIS Occasional Paper, Samuel Gregg examines religion and its effects upon liberty in the West, before speculating on what such experiences suggest about religion’s potential impact upon the growth... Read More
Catholicism and the Architecture of Freedom
The nature of freedom is a question that has puzzled western societies from their very beginnings. In the Centre for Independent Studies’ inaugural Acton Lecture on Religion and Freedom, George Pell... Read More
The Road Not Taken- Hayek’s Slippery Slope to Serfdom
In 1944 Friedrich Hayek published The Road to Serfdom, a warning against the totalitarian dangers involved in central economic planning. Although out of step with the intellectual fashions of its time,... Read More
The Modern Mask of Socialism
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, many people assumed that socialism was dead and that liberal democratic capitalism was to be the unchallenged way of the future. Now, however,... Read More
Nationality
Is the nation state the best form of political organisation? Should a country’s borders be based on racial or linguistic lines? Does the presence of ethnic diversity strengthen a community, or weaken... Read More
The Morality of Capitalism
Capitalism is winning the economic battle all over the world. The collapse of socialism has left it without serious challenge as a wealth-creating system. But moral criticism of capitalism continues. Even... Read More
Markets, Morals and Community
Few people today doubt the market’s contribution to prosperity, but still there are powerful intellectual traditions opposing the market. The market’s current critics fear not so much that it will... Read More
Institutions of innovation and Poverty
Western nations benefit from social institutions that create prosperity and liberty. The separation of the economic and political spheres and the emergence of institutions of private property and markets... Read More
The Social Roots of Prosperity
A society’s prosperity depends on its families. That is the central message of Brigitte Berger’s analysis of economic an and political success. Read More
The Political Economy of Freedom
The Political Economy of Freedom is an eloquent discussion of the importance of a diffusion of power in maintaining freedom. Read More
Karl Popper’s Politics: Liberalism versus Democratic Socialism
Karl Popper (1902-94) was one of the twentieth century’s leading philosophers. In this Occasional Paper Jeremy Shearmur shows how Popper’s though lends support to the ideas and institutions of classical... Read More
The Century of Networking
In this John Bonython Lecture, Rupert Murdoch reflects on the coming century of networking. In contrast with pessimistic views of technology taken by writers such as George Orwell, Mr Murdoch sees technology... Read More
The Moral Sense: An Essay
The distinctive feature of The Moral Sense: An Essay is that it uses the findings of modern science and social science to provide extensive evidence that natural human inclinations toward sociability lay... Read More
Literature and Freedom
In this CIS Occasional Paper, Mario Vargas Llosa highlights the mutually beneficial relationship between literature and freedom. Where freedom does not exist, censorship and self-censorship stifle creativity-... Read More
Questions of Conquest and Culture
In the tenth John Bonython Lecture, the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa reflects on the key question: ‘Can these cultures become modern and overcome oppression while conserving…fundamental elements... Read More
Economics, Faith and Moral Responsibility
In this CIS Occasional Paper, Robert Sirico defends the institutions of the free and open society from a Christian standpoint. Read More
Lessons from the Freiburg School: The Institutional Foundations of Freedom and Prosperity
West Germany’s post-War economic success was based on the ideas of the ‘Freiburg school,’ a school of liberal economists, lawyers and social philosophers centred at Freiburg University. Read More
Why I Am Not a Conservative
Liberals who uphold the idea of a free society in which both economic and civil liberties are respected are often regarded as conservatives. In his essay ‘Why I Am Not a Conservative’, first published... Read More
Freedom, Tradition, Conservatism
This CIS Occasional Paper reproduces an essay of his first published in 1960. In it, Meyer argues that the ‘libertarian’ and the ‘traditionalist’ opponents of socialism (or what he called ‘collectivist... Read More
Equalising People: Why Social Justice Threatens Liberty
In this Occasional Paper, David Green challenges the pursuit of social justice on three grounds: It is based on a shallow and materialistic conception of human nature that ignores unpriced and unrewarded... Read More
Dismantling Socialism: A Preliminary Report
In the eighth John Bonython Lecture, Václav Klaus, Finance Minister of Czechoslovakia, gives an account of his government’s attempts to move away from a socialist system towards a free-enterprise system. Read More
The Fraternal Conceit: Individualist versus Collectivist Ideas of Community
In this Occasional Paper, Dr Chandran Kukathas defends the liberal conception of civil association, in which individuals bound by rules of just conduct can peacefully coexist and pursue their private individual... Read More
Socialism Is Dead But Leviathan Lives On
In the seventh John Bonython Lecture, James Buchanan observes that the death of socialism has not been accompanied by the rise of any widespread faith in the free enterprise system, even though that system... Read More
Are We Winning?
Although classical liberal ideas are at present in the ascendancy, there is no guarantee that they will succeed in the long run in substantially reducing the size and power of the state. In this Occasional... Read More
The Egalitarian Conceit: False and True Equalities
Professor Kenneth Minogue traces the roots of modern egalitarianism to the Greek and Christian culture from which Western civilisation springs. Read More
Endangered Freedom
In the fifth John Bonython Lecture, Thomas Sowell argues that public life in Western countries is blighted by an ‘unconstrained vision’ of man and society. This vision treats all social evils as curable:... Read More
The Enemies of Progress
In the third John Bonython Lecture, Ralph Harris recounts the advances that economic freedom and entrepreneurship have brought the world and reminds us that all this good has been an ‘unintended consequence... Read More
Ideas about Freedom: A Discussion
Kenneth R. Minogue and John Gray, in separate essays, examine the history and assumptions behind liberalism and conservatism. They place the two doctrines squarely in the world of toady and recommend more... Read More
The Anti-Capitalist Mentality: Post Mortem for an Ideology
In the Second John Bonython Lecture, Professor R. M. Hartwell traces the history of the anti-capitalist mentality back to myths surrounding the Industrial Revolution in England. Read More
The Role of the Entreprenuer in the Economic System
In the Inaugural John Bonython Lecture, Israel Kirzner strongly defends the entrepreneur's role in keeping our economy healthy and vigorous. Buy download or Buy Hardcopy Read More
Liberty, Justice and the Market
Lauchlan Chipman challenges us not only to reject the notion that there is a conflict between liberty, justice and the market, but to accept the idea that they are mutually supportive. Read More
Social Justice, Socialism and Democracy: Three Australian Lectures
Three lectures on democracy by F.A. Hayek. Read More
Liberty, Justice and the Market
Orthodox opinion seems unable to accept the idea that a free market is not only the most efficient way of organising the economic affairs of society, but also that it does so in a manner consistent with... Read More
Law and Liberty
In the Fourth John Bonython Lecture, Shirley Letwin analyses the way in which the rule of law sustains individual liberty and a free society. Because the law provides a framework of rules for general cases,... Read More
Ideas, Interests & Experience: Some Implications for Policy Advice
Economists are increasingly called upon by bureaucrats and government official for policy advice. But economists have not always been able to present their ideas effectively. Many basic concepts of economics... Read More
