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.
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.
A Battle for the Rule of Law
The colonists were concerned by the specter of political power breaking out of the established, agreed-upon structure of constitutional authority that they had always lived under.
Can We Replay McKinley-ism?
There are notable connections between McKinley's rhetoric and political visions and President Trump's, but several important caveats apply to the comparison.
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The Civis in Civic Architecture
A return to the old ways, to traditional and classical architecture, is a return to order, a return of the citizen as the measure of a structure, of an institution.
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