In Paris, where we met him at length in his childhood neighborhood, Romanticism specialist and literary historian Alain Vaillant reads two centuries of Western culture as the rise and fall of a civilization centered on the individual.
Liberalism had the opportunity to govern alone between 1830 and 1835. Its distrust of the state prevented it from continuing the experiment. Since then, to maintain its influence, it has had to form alliances. But with whom?
In «Anti-civilization», Etienne-Alexandre Beauregard argues for a conservatism of the common good. Nation, shared culture and the «ordinary man» are, according to the 25-year-old Quebec essayist, the forgotten conditions of liberal democracy.
The Alpine Republic likes to think of itself as a model of liberalism. Yet, between the complaint against a French satirist and the government's silence in the face of European sanctions against Jacques Baud, the country is failing the test of defending freedom.
In her column, American economist Deirdre McCloskey criticizes the illusion of the protective state and shows how the promise of security can undermine individual freedom.
In her column, American economist Deirdre McCloskey explains why, in her view, modern wealth derives less from capital than from the freedom of individuals and the power of ideas.
For many, liberalism remains a vague concept. In his new book, «On Liberalism», Cass Sunstein seeks to define it, while expressing his admiration for some of its most influential figures.
Liberals have always been suspicious of unlimited forms of power, whether monarchical, revolutionary or democratic. They have been the most vigorous advocates of the strict limitation of power, whoever holds it and however it is organized.
The temptation to pursue an industrial policy hangs over Switzerland. Yet recent economic history, from the watchmaking industry to the Lucens nuclear reactor fiasco, shows that state intervention weakens rather than strengthens the national economy.
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