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WEEK OF OCTOBER 19, 2025
** This Week on the Measure of Power
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** Executive Power and Civic Virtue ([link removed])
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In the latest installment of The Future of Liberty podcast, Mitch Daniels and George Will examine the ambitions and limits of American power—political, institutional, and moral. Their conversation traces how the restless energy of the executive branch has shaped the republic and how enduring civic virtues sustain it through recurring cycles of overreach and renewal. Drawing on decades of political reflection, Daniels and Will explore the enduring tension between liberty and authority, offering a thoughtful meditation on the moral foundations that preserve freedom from both ambition and decay.
Listen Now ([link removed])
** What sustains a republic through cycles of overreach and fatigue, and how can citizens and institutions alike renew the moral foundations of self-government?
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** “The essence of constitutionalism in a democracy is not merely to shape and condition the nature of majorities, but also to stipulate that certain things are impermissible, no matter how large and fervent a majority might want them.” — George F. Will
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By reflecting on how people measure the justice and limits of their government, we gain insight into the delicate balance between ambition and restraint in public life. American tradition has long depended on both the energy of its leaders and the vigilance of its citizens to keep power within just bounds. Across history, moments of overreach and renewal have revealed how civic virtue, deliberation, and constitutional design work together to preserve liberty. Through this week’s featured resources, we are reminded that the health of self-government depends not only on constitutional design, but also on the character and judgment of its citizens.
** Articles
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** Holding Ourselves Accountable: What the Declaration Says About Just Conduct of Governments ([link removed])
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Elizabeth Amato, A Call to Liberty ([link removed])
John Adams’s confidence in the people’s capacity for reasoned judgment reminds us that the measure of government depends not only on its institutions but also on the character of its citizens. This essay invites reflection on how public deliberation and accountability sustain just government in both revolutionary and ordinary times.
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** Recovering Virtue Means Recovering Self-Government ([link removed])
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Tyler Syck, Law & Liberty ([link removed])
Exploring the tension between liberty and virtue, this essay suggests that the health of a republic depends less on the reach of its laws than on the habits of its people. By recovering spaces for local self-rule and civic responsibility, we may rediscover the moral foundations that sustain free government.
** Oakeshott and Liberal Education ([link removed])
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Elizabeth Corey, Ella C. Street, Eric S. Kos, and Elaine Sternberg, Online Library of Liberty ([link removed])
Michael Oakeshott’s distinction between civil and enterprise associations offers a way to see universities as places where learning unfolds freely rather than toward imposed purposes. This series of essays suggests that true education, like good government, is measured by the balance between freedom, order, and the moral conditions that make both possible.
** Political Realism and Evolutionary Orders: Two Contrasting Ideas of State ([link removed])
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Carlo Lottieri, Online Library of Liberty ([link removed])
This essay explores Bruno Leoni’s realist view of politics, in which power is most justly measured not by its concentration but by its diffusion across the many relationships that sustain a political order. It connects to this week’s theme by showing that liberty depends on balancing authority and consent—ensuring that governance arises from mutual exchange rather than top-down command.
** Stairway to Better: Adam Smith as a Guide to the Evolution of Political Order ([link removed])
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Amichai Magen, Adam Smith Works ([link removed])
Drawing on Adam Smith’s “treasure trove of lenses,” this essay considers how governments might be measured not only by their success in promoting prosperity and order, but by how they nurture moral character and civic responsibility. In an age of rapid change, it reminds us that liberty is best sustained when institutions foster human flourishing without weakening the social bonds that give it meaning.
** Podcasts
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** Arnold Kling on the Three Languages of Politics ([link removed])
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EconTalk ([link removed])
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** How the Framers Made the Presidency ([link removed])
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Law & Liberty Podcast ([link removed])
** Videos
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** The Politics of War and the Politics of Peace ([link removed])
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Law & Liberty ([link removed])
David Corey joins Law & Liberty to explore the conservative intellectual tradition and its understanding of liberty. This conversation considers how thinkers from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have wrestled with the relationship between freedom, order, and the moral foundations that sustain lawful self-government.
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