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
_-_DSC08585.avif)
.avif)
We are dedicated to exploring the ideas and institutions that create flourishing societies.
A Post-Liberal Takes New York
Touting “the warmth of collectivism”, as Zohran Mamdani has done, surely sends an additional shiver down the spines of New York’s sizable population of Jewish emigres from the Soviet Union.
Tariffs Are Working, Just Not for the American People
Sean Spicer wants us to believe that President Trump’s tariffs are “delivering real results.” If only official statistics and the lived experiences of each American agreed with him.
Reagan, the Original MAGA President?
We forget that the left and the media charged that Reagan was a dangerous "extremist" just as much as they charge Trump today with the same appellation.
Trump's Supposed Intellectual Forbearers
Modern writers should not abuse dead thinkers for political gain.
.webp)
The Wealth of Nations at 250: Adam Smith’s Blueprint for the American Economy
Ideas of few books have shaped the economic logic of the American experiment more profoundly than The Wealth of Nations, even when Americans have not always realized it as an agent that promotes prosperity and reduces poverty.
