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Civitas Outlook

Civitas Outlook, the online journal of the Civitas Institute, publishes original writing about the ideas that create flourishing societies.

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Waging Municipal Lawfare

Waging Municipal Lawfare

The limited authority of local governments to initiate public interest litigation is a matter of law, not politics.

Doug Peterson, Michael Toth
Constitutionalism
Oct 23, 2025

What Game Are We Playing?

What Game Are We Playing?

If you decide to play Calvinball, you have become a partisan of Calvinball.

John Grove
Constitutionalism
Oct 23, 2025

Trump's Industrial Policies Will Strangle Growth

Trump's Industrial Policies Will Strangle Growth

The public should doubt that the feds can run the nation’s businesses. 

Richard Epstein
Economic Dynamism
Oct 22, 2025

All topics

Civitas Outlook seeks understanding from a variety of authors, ideas, and disciplines. Choose a specific topic above or explore our full library.

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Waging Municipal Lawfare
Doug Peterson, Michael Toth
Constitutionalism
Oct 23, 2025
What Game Are We Playing?
John Grove
Constitutionalism
Oct 23, 2025
Trump's Industrial Policies Will Strangle Growth
Richard Epstein
Economic Dynamism
Oct 22, 2025
Does Federal Law Extend to Portlandia?
John Yoo
Constitutionalism
Oct 22, 2025
Bodies, Selves, and the Quest for Identity
Rachel Lu
Pursuit of Happiness
Oct 21, 2025
Creed, Culture, and American Memory
Wilfred McClay
Constitutionalism
Oct 21, 2025

Economic Dynamism

We consider the principles, policies, and culture that supports free market capitalism

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Creating Affordable Housing Requires Just One Simple Legislative Change
Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, Lee E. Ohanian
Economic Dynamism
Aug 28, 2025
Will California Reform Its Broken Housing Policies?
Julia R. Cartwright
Economic Dynamism
Aug 26, 2025
Reindustrialization Doesn’t Mean Romanticizing the Past—It Means Facing Hard Truths
Veronique de Rugy
Economic Dynamism
Aug 26, 2025
Civitas Conversations: Vero de Rugy on Tariffs and the Economists
Veronique de Rugy, Richard M. Reinsch II
Economic Dynamism
Aug 22, 2025
The Tariff Symposium
Richard Epstein, Samuel Gregg, G. Dirk Mateer, Dominic Pino, Veronique de Rugy
Economic Dynamism
Aug 20, 2025
Words That Open Markets
Samuel Gregg
Economic Dynamism
Aug 20, 2025

Politics

We investigate what it means to be a constitutional people who remain tethered to the rule of law.

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Will Platonic Guardians End Mass Incarceration?
Paul J. Larkin
Politics
Jun 27, 2025
The Lion Rises and the Eagle Soars
Juliana Geran Pilon
Politics
Jun 24, 2025
Work Requirements For Medicaid Could Increase Income and Reduce Poverty
Scott Winship
Politics
Jun 17, 2025
The Martyr’s Message
Juliana Geran Pilon
Politics
Jun 16, 2025
Backfire: Trump’s Overbroad Sanctions Against Harvard and Columbia
Richard Epstein
Politics
Jun 11, 2025
Texas and the Future of Legal Education
Richard M. Reinsch II
Politics
Jun 10, 2025

Constitutionalism

We discuss the political thought that undergirds a society of freedom and virtue.

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Waging Municipal Lawfare
Doug Peterson, Michael Toth
Constitutionalism
Oct 23, 2025
What Game Are We Playing?
John Grove
Constitutionalism
Oct 23, 2025
Does Federal Law Extend to Portlandia?
John Yoo
Constitutionalism
Oct 22, 2025
Creed, Culture, and American Memory
Wilfred McClay
Constitutionalism
Oct 21, 2025
The Constitution and the National Guard
Robert G. Natelson
Constitutionalism
Oct 20, 2025
Have We All Misunderstood Enumerated Powers?
Johnathan O'Neill
Constitutionalism
Oct 9, 2025

Pursuit of Happiness

We explore how citizens, neighbors, workers, families, and communities shape the future of American society.

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Chernow Speaks of Twain But Doesn’t Know His Words
Lee Oser
Pursuit of Happiness
Sep 12, 2025
Adam Smith in the Shadow of Thucydides
Graham McAleer
Pursuit of Happiness
Sep 5, 2025
Urban Designing for Dignity
Samuel J. Abrams
Pursuit of Happiness
Sep 3, 2025
What Evil Can and Cannot Teach Us
Nathaniel Peters
Pursuit of Happiness
Aug 29, 2025
The French Origins of Urban Renewal
Tyler Turman
Pursuit of Happiness
Aug 22, 2025
Diversity, Real and Imposed
Gregory M. Collins
Pursuit of Happiness
Aug 21, 2025

Technology & Innovation

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Civitas Institute

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Who we are

We are a community of scholars exploring the ideas and institutions that create flourishing societies.

The Civitas Institute is part of the School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin.

Independent thought, civil discourse, reasoned deliberation and intellectual curiosity are central to our ethos.

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