Democracy only succeeds when it constrains the temptation to exercise power in ways that advance self-interests at the expense of national interests.
Category: political institutions
Property and Property Rights: A History
The Western concept of property has been influenced by such thinkers as John Locke, James Madison, John Stuart Mill, and Friedrich Hayek.
The Doctrines of Nineteenth-Century Socialism
Socialist ideas first appeared in the early 1800s. Saint-Simon, Sismondi, Fourier and Marx were among their early expositors and proponents.
The Political Impact of Nineteenth-Century Socialism
Socialist and communist political parties were active by 1870. The most successful Marxist party, Germany’s SPD, was the largest party in the Reichstag by 1914.
An Economic History of Russia: 1900-1924
In the first decades of the twentieth century, Russia went from autocracy, to revolution and civil war, to communist rule.
An Economic History of Russia: 1924-1953
During Stalin’s rule, the Soviet Union abandoned markets in favour of a pure command economy, and industrialized at the fastest possible pace.
An Economic History of Russia: 1953-1985
The years 1953-85 were a test of the efficacy of central planning. It was a test that central planning unequivocally failed. What went wrong?
An Economic History of Russia: 1985-1991
Mikhail Gorbachev introduced market-oriented economic reforms in the late 1980s. They were too little, too late. The Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991.
The Holodomor and Mao’s Famine
The Communist governments of Stalin and Mao were responsible for two of the worst famines in history.
Chinese Politics in the Time of Deng Xiaoping
The era in which Deng Xiaoping restructured the Chinese economy was also an era of social unrest, both within China and in the Eastern Bloc.
Merchants and Mechanics 