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 School of Civic Leadership at 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
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We are dedicated to exploring the ideas and institutions that create flourishing societies.
Junk the CAFE Standards
The regulation of air pollution, like that of any other dangerous externality, only works if the appropriate regulatory scheme is put in place at the outset, and that is where the current CAFE framework is fatally defective.
“Brazenly Partisan” Judges Scrutinize Trump’s Mind, But Refuse To Explain Themselves
Josh Blackman investigates how, when it comes to rooting out judicial misconduct, federal judges hide behind a veil of ignorance.
Obamacare Should No Longer be SCOTUScare
Whatever one makes of the Supreme Court’s “why bother” attitude to its prior statutory rulings, Republican leaders in Congress should accept the invitation to provide a legal fix to Obamacare.
