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.
Building a Politics of Deliberation in the Tarheel State
The high price of destructive dialogue and the value of constructive engagement are among the few matters about which the coauthors of this article agree.
A National Day of Gratitude
Washington’s Proclamation expressed hope that God would “render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed…”
Can Cass Sunstein Save Liberalism?
Sunstein's analysis of liberalism fails to reach the live arguments about liberalism’s viability in a diverse and democratic republic.
