Political Theory

Walter Block talks about Plumb Line Libertarianism at the 2002 Austrian Scholars Conference.

David Gordon discusses Mises’s Criticisms of Rothbard on Natural Law at the 2003 Austrian Scholars Conference.

Recorded at Mises University 2001.

Recorded at the Mises Institute, May 1994.

Recorded at the 2003 Supporters Summit: Prosperty, War, and Depression.

(39:25)

Natural law does not depend directly on God’s will. Natural law goes back to at least the scholastics and perhaps Thomas Aquinas. Modern Natural Rights theory began in 1625. Modern theory recognizes the institution the state. Natural law is thought to produce inalienable natural rights. They speak to the dignity of the individual and life and property. The close connection between liberty and property is part of this tradition.

Recorded at the Mises Institute, May 1994.

WWI was a kind of turning point. Bolshevism, National Socialism and fascism are related ideologies which surfaced after the war. Fascism was the wave of the future in 1920 with its notion of government central planning.

Certain themes that relate to the New Deal between 1933 and 1938 ended in 1938 when FDR moved on to repair all the problems of the world, not just the country. The Congress and the people were receptive to all proposals that they thought would benefit them directly. Agencies that were created in the first 100 days were from a mind-boggling assortment of enactments.

Recorded at Mises University 2004.