Daniel J. Mahoney

We do not lack theoretical “defenses” of liberalism. Indeed, academic political theorists have produced them by the truckload over the past several decades. Restatements of the case for classical liberalism, however, are less common”and, for that reason, all the more needful. In . . . . Continue Reading »

Alexis de Tocqueville is an ines­ capable presence in the contemporary debate about the nature of the democratic dispensation. His work is used to validate almost every theoretical and partisan current and is appealed to by politicians who wish to establish their intellectual credentials. For . . . . Continue Reading »

The modern world’s landscape is marked by two seemingly inexorable and contradictory processes: on the one hand, the emergence of unprecedented state power, claiming competence over ever greater domains of human life; on the other, the rise of a self-assertive “society” aiming to . . . . Continue Reading »

Conservatism: An Anthology of Social and Political Thought Edited by Jerry Z. Muller Princeton University Press. 450 pp. $44.95 Conservatism has undoubtedly established its presence on the American political and intellectual landscape, but most of us would be at a loss to define it with any kind of . . . . Continue Reading »