Ideas about Liberty
This work focuses on traditional liberal concerns - the extent of government and the restraint of liberty. However, the crucial issue constantly raised and addressed is what makes for a good society. Is a society truly civil if government bureaucracies have constantly to intervene to regulate and restrict the activities of citizens? Or, is the only truly civil society an ‘open society’. The ideal the CIS endorses is that a good society is one in which autonomous citizens are at liberty to order their affairs as they wish, in which individuals have the capacity to take personal responsibility for their choices, and in which people are left free to combine with others as they see fit to advance their mutual interests.
Publications
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The Kingdom of God is Forcefully Advancing and Forceful Men Lay Hold of It
| 14 Sep 2011 | Occasional PapersIn the CIS’s annual Acton Lecture on Religion and Freedom, Senator David Coltart discusses the application of biblical... Read More...
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INTERVIEW: The Dignity of the Bourgeoisie
| 20 Aug 2011 | POLICY MagazineDeidre McCloskey explains to Matthew Shaffer how, around 1700, a new way of thinking gave birth to the modern world.
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BOOK REVIEW: Speech Matters: Getting Free Speech Right
| 20 Aug 2011 | POLICY MagazineSpeech Matters: Getting Free Speech Right by Katharine Gelber Reviewed by Thomas Morgan
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BOOK REVIEW: The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement
| 20 Aug 2011 | POLICY MagazineThe Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement by David Brooks Reviewed by Don Arthur
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Book Review: The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century
| 20 Aug 2011 | POLICY MagazineThe Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century by Brian J. Grim and Roger Finke Reviewed... Read More...
Opinion & Commentary
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Italy defaults on debt and sends lenders broke? So be it
| 15 Nov 2011 | CrikeyThe federal government will need to cut spending to ensure a surplus in 2012-13.... Read More
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Government, not capitalism, should take blame
| 21 Oct 2011 | Australian Financial ReviewCapitalism is not about giant corporations being able to dump their losses on taxpayers. It is not about allowing senior ... Read More
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Should poker machine gambling be restricted?
| 01 Oct 2011 | Sydney Morning HeraldReforms to make people pre commit the amount of money they are going to play on the pokies.... Read More
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Does gay marriage prove marriage matters?
| 29 Sep 2011 | Online OpinionGay couples dragging marriage back into vogue.... Read More
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Don’t gamble with people’s freedom
| 29 Sep 2011 | The DrumNew Poker Machine laws are impeding people’s freedom... Read More
Ideas@TheCentre
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How (not) to pick a nanny-state winner
| 20 Jan 2012Government can’t control everything. People who want to gamble online will gamble online....
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Lazy not a disorder
| 02 Dec 2011Kids who are allowed to play video games all day shouldn’t be labelled with a disorder – their parents should be labelled ...
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Texting tragedy
| 25 Nov 2011Introduction of laws in Pakistan that ban the use of certain words in mobile texts afflicts the most basic human right - ...
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No end to certainty of state paternalism in Australia
| 18 Nov 2011The insidious reliance on government paternalism is hobbling the responsible growth of the Australian nation and its people....
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Nanny state taxation
| 04 Nov 2011If the nanny state insists on new or increased behavioural taxes, then government should also introduce equivalent cuts in ...
