




Ideas for
Prosperity
Tomorrow’s leaders need better, bolder ideas about how to make our society freer and more prosperous. That’s why the Civitas Institute exists, plain and simple.

Through research, commentary, and public outreach, we explore all aspects of a free and vibrant society, including economic dynamism, individual flourishing, civic virtue, and constitutionalism.
The Civitas Institute is part of the University of Texas at Austin.
Independent thought, civil discourse, free speech, reasoned deliberation and intellectual curiosity are central to our ethos.
The Civitas Institute takes its name from The University of Texas at Austin motto, Disciplina Praesidium Civitatis, a condensed Latin rendering of Mirabeau Lamar’s famous statement that a “cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy.”
This origin reflects both the university’s institutional heritage and the Institute’s interest in the link between knowledge and liberty.

Our history






Our team
We are dedicated to exploring the ideas and institutions that create flourishing societies.

Trump's Jeffersonian Foreign Policy
The Constitution creates a presidency that can respond forcefully to prevent serious threats to our national security.

How FDR’s Bold Experimentation Blinkered the American Economy
Overall, False Dawn is a disciplined, evidence-heavy challenge to the New Deal’s most self-flattering myth: that bold experimentation rescued the American economy.
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