Publications
Our publications are the most important means of contact between the Centre's ideas and its general readership. Since 1976, The Centre for Independent Studies has produced some of the most authoritative publications in Australasian academia. From the influential Lands of Shame to the authoritative Will China Fail? CIS has published hundreds of publications covering topics from the social policy to legal affairs to religion and education.
In addition to books, the CIS publishes a range of shorter publications: Issue Analyses deal with controversial and current issues and Policy Mongraphs investigate and offer policy solutions. Since 1984, Policy magazine has published feature articles and reviews authored by some of the foremost national and international thinkers on public policy and ideas. The quality of writing and the diversity of topics in Policy ensure its status as a 'must read' by leading politicans, businesspeople and academics.
Hard copies of our publications are available for purchase through the bookstore. Many of the smaller publications are also available for download.
CONTRIBUTIONS
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All Classical Liberalism Publications
TARGET30: Reducing the burden for future generations
TARGET30 is a campaign promoting smaller government and cutting government spending to less than 30% of GDP in the next 10...
A Fair Go: Fact or Fiction?
The Australian ideal of a fair go is fact rather than fiction. By offering all individuals the opportunity to capitalise...
In the Pay of the Piper: Governments, Not-for-Profits, and the Burden of Regulation
Reforms intended to boost confidence in Australian charities risk turning the charitable sector into just another arm of...
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,...
Tax Welfare Churn and the Australian Welfare State
The welfare state currently consumes $316 billion a year; however, much of this spending is not targeted at those who need...
TARGET30 SNAPSHOT: Tax Welfare Churn and the Australian Welfare State
The welfare state currently consumes $316 billion a year; however, much of this spending is not targeted at those who need...
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...
TARGET30: Towards smaller government and future prosperity
TARGET30 is a campaign promoting smaller government, supported by a series of research reports providing policy solutions...
TARGET30 SNAPSHOT: Towards smaller government and future prosperity
TARGET30 is a campaign promoting smaller government, supported by a series of research reports providing policy solutions...
Australia and the Asian Ascendancy: Why Upskilling is Not Necessary to Reap the Rewards
Government programs to upskill the Australian workforce for the Asian Century are a solution to a non-problem. With more...
Capitalism and Virtue: Reaffirming Old Truths
In the 2012 Annual John Bonython Lecture, eminent political scientist Charles Murray describes the larger historical forces...
Panacea to Prison? Justice Reinvestment in Indigenous Communities
High Indigenous incarceration has elicited a long list of so-called solutions over the years. Yet the percentage of Aboriginal...
Australia's Asia Literacy Non-Problem
New large-scale Asia literacy programs are not necessary for Australia to prosper in the Asian Century. There are approximately...
FEATURE: Robust Political Economy
A discussion of the challenges and criticisms facing classical liberals today.
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...
The Multi-layered Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek was one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century. His contributions ranged from economics...
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...
Ludwig von Mises – A Primer
In Ludwig von Mises – A Primer, Eamonn Butler presents a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the outstanding achievements...
Constitutional Conservatism
In The Centre for Independent Studies’ annual Acton Lecture on Religion and Freedom, Hoover Institution scholar Dr Peter...
BOOK REVIEW: Ayn Rand and the World She Made & Goddess of the Market
For an author whose novels have consistently sold in the hundreds of thousands for more than half a century, Ayn Rand is...
BOOK REVIEW: Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Can Europe be the same with different people in it?
Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Can Europe Be the Same with Different People in It? by Christopher Caldwell (Penguin,...
BOOK REVIEW: Reflections On The Revolution In Europe: Can Europe Be The Same With Different People In It?
Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Can Europe Be the Same with Different People in It? by Christopher Caldwell (Penguin,...
FEATURE: Justice and Markets
Hayek rejected justice arguments for and against the market. But his reasons do not logically rule out moderating market...
FEATURE: What Do Economic Liberals Believe?
There is more diversity of opinion among economic liberals than terms like ‘free-market fundamentalism’.
COMMENT: Conservatism and Classic Liberalism: A Rapproachment
"Why I am Not a Liberal" This essay examines what classical liberals dislike about conservatism, asking whether or not...
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...
The Servile State: Studies in Empirical Philosophy
John Anderson has two passions - philosophy and freedom, and The Servile State is philosophy analysing social and moral tendencies...
FEATURE: Art and The Enlightenment Project
Art for the audience, rather than art for art's sake, is one characteristics found in the Enlightenment view of the arts.
FEATURE: Dr Friedman and Mr Hyde: The Rise of Disaster Polemics
Naomi Klein's attack on Milton Friedman misses its target.
REVIEW ESSAY: Popper's Critique of 'Free-Market Ideology'
Popper's views on the role of government in a free society do not always fit easily within the classical liberal tradition.
Adam Smith - A Primer
Despite his fame, there is still widespread ignorance about the breadth of Adam Smith's contrinbutions to economics, politics...
In Praise of Elitism
Australian society is frequently characterised as egalitarian: belief in a 'fair go' for all and a love for cutting down...
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...
FEATURE: Enlightening Islam
Leonie Phillips talks with Ayaan Hirsi Ali about Islam and liberalism.
FEATURE: Milton Friedman on the Wallaby Track
Milton Friedman and monetarism both visited Australia in the 1970s.
BOOK REVIEW: Reviving the Invisible Hand: The Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty First Century
Reviving the Invisible Hand: The case for classical liberalism in the twenty first century by Deepak Lal (Princeton University...
FEATURE: Taking Classical Lliberalism to People
A classical liberal party can have influence without election victory.
FEATURE SUPPLEMENT: The Classical Liberal Constituency
Is there a constituency for classical liberal or libertarian politics?
BOOK REVIEW: Adam Smith and the Pursuit of Perfect Liberty
Adam Smith and the pursuit of perfect liberty by James Buchanan (Profile Books, 2006).
Liberty and Liberalism
A Protest against the growing tendency toward undue interference by the state, with individual liberty, private enterprise...
REVIEW ESSAYS: Habits of the Mind & Habits of the Heart
The Roads to Modernity: The British, French and American Enlightenment by Gertrude Himmerlfarb (Knopft, 2004).
RESPONSES BY INVITATION: The 'Vision Thing'
(In response to American Grand Strategy: The Imperial Logic of Bush's Liberal Agenda by Edward Rhodes in POLICY Summer 2003.) The...
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...
FEATURE: Hayek on the Role of the State: A Radical Libertarian Critique
Was Hayek really a 'minimal' state theorist? After all, he thought that we needed the state, not only as a protector but...
Principles for a Free Society
The need for a principled reconciliation between the prerogatives of individual liberty and social order has been a central...
FEATURE: Liberalism in Economics and Politics
An interview with Antonio Martino, Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Department of Political Science at the Free...
FEATURE: Society and the Crisis of Liberalism
Liberalism as a hope for society?
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...
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...
BOOK REVIEW: Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader
Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader by Dinesh D'Souza (The Free Press, 1997.)
BOOK REVIEW: Renaissance: The Rebirth of Liberty in the Heart of Europe
Renaissance: The Rebirth of Liberty in the Heart of Europe by Vaclav Klaus (Cato Institute, 1997.)
BOOK REVIEW: The Idea of Decline in Western History
The Idea of Decline in Western History by Arthur Herman (The Free Press, 1997.)
FEATURE: Politically Impossible?
How ideas, not interests and circumstances, determine public policy.
FEATURE: Anders Chydenius' National Profit & Loss
A Swedish Smith.
BOOK REVIEW: The Age of Rights
The Age of Rights by Norberto Bobbio, translated by Allan Cameron (Polity Press, 1996.)
BOOK REVIEW: An Intellectual History of Liberalism
An Intellectual History of Liberalism by Pierre Manent (Princeton University Press, 1994.)
FEATURE: The Unended Quest For Liberty: The Legacy Of Murray Rothbard
The death of Murray Rothbard is a grievous blow to the libertarian and classical liberal movement.
INTERVIEW: Can Individualism Survive In A Collectivist Age?
Kenneth Minogue, a political theorist with a long-time interest in liberalism, talks to Andrew Norton
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...
OBITUARY: Karl Popper
The death of Karl Popper signals the twilights of the era when philosophy in the English speaking world was dominated by...
BOOK REVIEW: Liberalism
Liberalism edited by Richard J. Arneson (Edward Elgar, Aldershot, 1992.)
FEATURE: A Road to Hell Paved With Good Intentions
Hayek's warning to the world.
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...
FEATURE: The New World Order and the 'Right to Intervene'
The establishment by the UN of a safe haven for the Kurds in Northern Iraq illustrates the emergence of a new doctrine in...
BOOK REVIEW: Liberalism and Minority Cultures
Liberalism, Community and Culture by Will Kymlicka (Clarendon Press, 1989.)
BOOK REVIEW: Justifying Liberal Neutrality
Liberal Neutrality edited by Robert E. Goodin and Andrew Reeve (Routledge, 1989.)
REVIEW ARTICLE: Rationalist or Anti-Rationalist?
Chandran Kukathas' Hayek and Modern Liberalism.
Endangered Freedom
In the fifth John Bonython Lecture, Thomas Sowell argues that public life in Western countries is blighted by an ‘unconstrained...
Traditions of Liberalism: Essays on John Locke, Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill
The1980's has seem a remarkable revival of Classical Liberalism, the political philosophy that places a high value on individual...
Ideas about Freedom: A Discussion
Kenneth R. Minogue and John Gray, in separate essays, examine the history and assumptions behind liberalism and conservatism....
Hayek's 'Serfdom' Revisited
Essays by economists, philosophers and political scientists on The Road to Serfdom after 40 years. Tributes by Norman Barry,...
Social Justice, Socialism and Democracy: Three Australian Lectures
Three lectures on democracy by F.A. Hayek.
