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| The '''Ludwig von Mises Institute''' ('''LvMI'''), or simply "Mises Institute", located in ], is an American organization named for ] economist ] (1881–1973). Its website states that it is dedicated to advancing "the Misesian tradition of thought through the defense of the market economy, private property, sound money, and peaceful international relations, while opposing government intervention."<ref name = "about">. Accessed November 23, 2012</ref> |
The '''Ludwig von Mises Institute''' ('''LvMI'''), or simply "Mises Institute", located in ], is an American organization named for ] economist ] (1881–1973). Its website states that it is dedicated to advancing "the Misesian tradition of thought through the defense of the market economy, private property, sound money, and peaceful international relations, while opposing government intervention."<ref name = "about">. Accessed November 23, 2012</ref> | ||
| Critics have called it "right wing" and compared it to a cult. | |||
| The Mises Institute was founded in 1982 by ] It sponsors annual conferences, a physical library at its Alabama location, online study and research materials, various academic fellowships, and an active electronic and print publishing program.<ref name="about" /> The official motto of the Ludwig von Mises Institute is ''Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito'', which comes from ]'s '']'', Book VI; the motto means "do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it." Early in his life, Mises chose this sentence to be his guiding principle in life. It is prominently displayed throughout the Institute's campus, on their website, and on memorabilia.<ref> Accessed February 2, 2013.</ref> | The Mises Institute was founded in 1982 by ] It sponsors annual conferences, a physical library at its Alabama location, online study and research materials, various academic fellowships, and an active electronic and print publishing program.<ref name="about" /> The official motto of the Ludwig von Mises Institute is ''Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito'', which comes from ]'s '']'', Book VI; the motto means "do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it." Early in his life, Mises chose this sentence to be his guiding principle in life. It is prominently displayed throughout the Institute's campus, on their website, and on memorabilia.<ref> Accessed February 2, 2013.</ref> | ||
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| Motto | Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito Latin: Do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it |
|---|---|
| Founder | Lew Rockwell, Jr. |
| Established | 1982 |
| Mission | To advance the Misesian tradition of thought through the defense of the market economy, private property, sound money, and peaceful international relations, while opposing government intervention as economically and socially destructive. |
| Focus | Economics, Libertarianism |
| President | Lew Rockwell, Jr. |
| Faculty | 19 (Senior Fellows) |
| Adjunct faculty | 64 |
| Staff | 21 |
| Key people | Joseph Salerno, Peter G. Klein, Thomas Woods |
| Endowment | $17,862,528 |
| Slogan | "Advancing the scholarship of liberty in the tradition of the Austrian School" |
| Location | Auburn, Alabama, United States |
| Coordinates | 32°36′24″N 85°29′28″W / 32.60667°N 85.49111°W / 32.60667; -85.49111 |
| Website | mises |
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The Ludwig von Mises Institute (LvMI), or simply "Mises Institute", located in Auburn, Alabama, is an American organization named for Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). Its website states that it is dedicated to advancing "the Misesian tradition of thought through the defense of the market economy, private property, sound money, and peaceful international relations, while opposing government intervention." Critics have called it "right wing" and compared it to a cult.
The Mises Institute was founded in 1982 by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. It sponsors annual conferences, a physical library at its Alabama location, online study and research materials, various academic fellowships, and an active electronic and print publishing program. The official motto of the Ludwig von Mises Institute is Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito, which comes from Virgil's Aeneid, Book VI; the motto means "do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it." Early in his life, Mises chose this sentence to be his guiding principle in life. It is prominently displayed throughout the Institute's campus, on their website, and on memorabilia.
Background and location
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The Ludwig von Mises Institute was established in 1982 by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. Economist Murray Rothbard was head of academic programs and vice president until his death in 1995. Founder Rockwell has stated that the Institute met strong opposition from parties affiliated with the Koch family in the wake of a dispute which occurred in the early 1980's between Murray Rothbard and the Cato Institute, another libertarian organization co-founded by Rothbard.
In a discussion of the early years of the Mises Institute, Austrian economist Steven Horwitz criticized the Institute for what he describes as its "numerous connections with all kinds of unsavory folks: racists, anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers". In Horwitz' analysis, the association of these people was due to a strategy, articulated by Llewellyn Rockwell, and based on Rothbard's "paleolibertarian" views formulated in the 1980s after his separation from the Koch brothers and the Cato Institute. Horwitz and political scientist Jacob Levy state that Rothbard identified the need to attract social and religious conservatives to establish a libertarian-conservative fusion constituency, distinct from the more socially progressive followers of Cato and the Koch Brothers. In Horowitz' view, "the paleo strategy was a horrific mistake, both strategically and theoretically...There was the Rothbard-Rockwell Report, which was another major place publishing these sorts of views. They could also be found in a whole bunch of Mises Institute publications of that era", which Horwitz calls "really unsavory garbage that the paleo turn produced back then."
Citing and concurring with Horwitz' view of the libertarian movement of the era, Jonah Goldberg referred to the "sinful strategy adopted by so-called paleolibertarians in the 1980s. The idea was that libertarians needed to attract followers from outside the ranks of both the mainstream GOP and the libertarian movement — by trying to fuse the struggle for individual liberty with nostalgia for white supremacy. Thinkers such as Murray Rothbard hated the cultural liberalism of libertarians like the Koch brothers (yes, you read that right) and sought to build a movement fueled by white resentment."
The Mises Institute was initially located at the business department offices of Auburn University. It relocated to its current site in Auburn, AL in 1998. According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the Institute claims to have chosen its Auburn location for low cost of living and "good ol' Southern hospitality". The article goes on "to make an additional point", that "Southerners have always been distrustful of government," making the South a natural home for the organization's paleolibertarian outlook. The institute has a staff of 16 senior scholars and about 200 adjunct scholars from the United States and other countries. The Institute houses an on-site library of nearly 35,000 volumes.
Views espoused by founder and organization scholars
The Institute is critical of democracy, which authors in Mises Institute publications have called coercive, incompatible with wealth creation, replete with inner contradictions, and a system of legalized graft. Writers associated with the Mises Institute typically take a critical view of most U.S. government activities, foreign and domestic, throughout American history. The Institute expresses non-interventionist positions on foreign policy, asserting that war tends to increase the power of government. The Institute's website offers content which is explicitly critical of democracy, collectivism, fascism, socialism, and communism.
Institute scholars have condemned Abraham Lincoln's conduct of the American Civil War (e.g. suspending habeas corpus), asserting that his policies contributed to the growth of statism in the United States. Senior faculty member Thomas DiLorenzo, in his critical biographies The Real Lincoln and Lincoln: Unmasked, argues that the sixteenth president substantially expanded the size and powers of the federal government at the expense of individual liberty. Adjunct faculty member Donald Livingston shares a similar view, blaming Lincoln for the creation of "a French Revolutionary style unitary state" and "centralizing totalitarianism." Institute scholars have also taken a more general anti-war stance. Many works espousing a general anti-war view such as John Denson's A Century of War and H.C. Engelbrecht's The Merchants of Death can be found on the institute’s website and purchased through its bookstore.
Institute scholars disagree on the subject of immigration. Walter Block argues in favor of open borders. Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues that in a stateless society individuals would only be able to travel with permission of individual land owners.
Views on the Confederacy
LvMI's Thomas DiLorenzo's references to the American Civil War as the "War to prevent Southern Independence" and Mises faculty member Thomas Woods's presence at the founding of the League of the South were cited by James Kirchick, writing for the New Republic, as suggesting a "disturbing attachment to the Confederacy." Woods has stated that he was present at the meeting at which the organization was founded, and later contributed to its newsletter, but that his involvement was limited.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has criticized the Institute as "Neo-Confederate." Lew Rockwell responded to the criticism by writing "We have published revisionist accounts of the origins of the Civil War that demonstrate that the tariff bred more conflict between the South and the feds than slavery. For that, we were decried as a dangerous institutional proponent of “neoconfederate” ideology. Why not just plain old Confederate ideology."
Criticisms
The institute has been characterized by some writers as "right-wing," a label which Lew Rockwell and others affiliated with the Institute deny. David Boaz wrote:
The fact is, there’s a small band of self-styled “libertarians” who over the past two decades have associated the great ideas of Austrian economics and libertarianism with bigotry, reflexive anti-Americanism, and vitriol directed at everyone from the Trilateral Commission to Cato and Reason. They have very little association with the larger libertarian movement or with such libertarian-inspired movements as the Tea Party, the drug reform movement, or the school choice movement. Virtually their only point of contact with the broader constituency for smaller government is through Rep. Ron Paul, who, for whatever reasons, has unfortunately continued his association with the people who have tarred him and the causes that are drawing many voters to him.
Julian Sanchez and David Weigel have examined the paleo libertarian movement which supported the founding of the Mises Institute:
The most detailed description of the strategy came in an essay Rothbard wrote for the January 1992 Rothbard-Rockwell Report, titled "Right-Wing Populism: A Strategy for the Paleo Movement." Lamenting that mainstream intellectuals and opinion leaders were too invested in the status quo to be brought around to a libertarian view, Rothbard pointed to David Duke and Joseph McCarthy as models for an "Outreach to the Rednecks," which would fashion a broad libertarian/paleoconservative coalition by targeting the disaffected working and middle classes.
Mises Scholar Robert Murphy supported the Institute's founder, Llewellyn Rockwell. He called the critics of Rothbard and Rockwell "hyenas" and defended Rockwell's refusal to respond to the controversy surrounding the racist content in the Ron Paul newsletters. In the opinion of former Mises Institute Scholar Gene Callahan, "I think the truly racist time at LVMI had passed by the time Bob and I got there" around 2001. Callahan states, "Rothbard, in the late 80s or early 90s, had decided that an appeal to racists was just the ticket for his movement. He published articles saying things like blacks weren't doing very well because they weren't so smart, got involved with Neo-Confederate causes, and so on. I think by 2000, Lew Rockwell sincerely regretted that time".
The Institute as a cult
Gene Callahan has implied that the Institute is a cult and compared it to Scientology.
Publications, conferences, and awards
The Mises Institute has published nearly 50 books and pamphlets and archives various writings on its website. Its Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics is dedicated to the promotion of Austrian economics. It published the Journal of Libertarian Studies from 1977 to 2008. The "Are You An Austrian?" quiz is designed to test an individual's economic reasoning. Its questions include topics covering many fundamental tenets in economic thought (e.g., property rights, the role of state intervention, value of money). It has been criticized by economists such as Arnold Kling, who wrote, "the "Are you an Austrian?" quiz does not distinguish between knowledge of doctrine and belief in doctrine. To me, this is symptomatic of a sect, which focuses on doctrinal purity above all else. For a sect, to know is to believe, and to believe is to know." The Austrian Scholars Conference is an annual event which presents lectures and moderated panels on diverse subjects, for example "The Continuing Relevance of Austrian Capital Theory" and "Judaism and Capitalism: Friends or Enemies?" Mises University, started in 1986, is a week-long summer program.
Each year the Institute rewards several individuals for their accomplishments. The annual Schlarbaum Prize for lifetime defense of liberty, presents $10,000 to a public intellectual or distinguished scholar. Laureates have included Ron Paul, Ralph Block, and Otto von Habsburg. Other honors include the Murray Rothbard Medal (also won by Block and Paul, as well as by Christian Reconstructionist Gary North) The Elgin Groseclose Award (a $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle) for money writing, and the Fertig Prize.
See also
References
- ^ About The Mises Institute. Accessed November 23, 2012
- "Ludwig von Mises Institute (search)". Melissa data. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
- "Frequently Asked Questions." Accessed February 2, 2013.
- "About the Mises Institute." Mises.org
- Rockwell, Lew. "Libertarianism and the Old Right." Mises.org. August 5, 2006.
- Gordon, David (April 22, 2008). "The Kochtopus vs. Murray N. Rothbard". LewRockwell.com. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
- Stromberg, Joseph (August 2, 2000). "Raimondo on Rothbard and Rothbard on Everything". Retrieved January 10, 2010.
- �Liberty Magazine Vol. 3 No.3, 1990, page 34. http://mises.org/journals/liberty/Liberty_Magazine_January_1990.pdf
- http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2011/12/ron-paul-continued/
- http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2011/12/how-did-we-get-here-or-why-do-20-year-old-newsletters-matter-so-damn-much/
- Goldberg, Johan. "Rand Paul's Paleo Problem". National Review. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
- "The Mises Campus". Mises.org. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- Wingfield, Kyle. "Auburnomics: Von Mises finds a sweet home in Alabama." Wall Street Journal. August 11, 2006.
- "Faculty Members". Mises.org. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- "Ward & Massey Libraries". Mises.org. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ Christopher Mayer. "Democracy is Coercive". Cite error: The named reference "url" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- "Does Democracy Threaten the Free Market? – N. Joseph Potts – Mises Institute".
- "Chapter 5 – Binary Intervention: Government Expenditures (continued)".
- Beirich, Heidi and Mark Potok. "The Ideologues." Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2004.
- "Immigration Symposium" (PDF). Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- "A Libertarian Case for Free Immigration" (PDF). Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- "The Case for Free Trade and Limited Immigration" (PDF). Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- Kirchick, James. "Angry White Man." The New Republic. January 8, 2008.
- LewRockwell.com Blog: In Case You Were Wondering
- Cathy Young from the June 2005 issue. "Reason Magazine – Behind the Jeffersonian Veneer". Reason.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - "The Neo-Confederates". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Summer 2000.
- Rockwell, Lew (2003). "Speaking of Liberty". Ludwig von Mises Institute.
- Hardisty, Jean V. 1999. Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers. Boston: Beacon Press, pp. 166–172
- Heider, Ulrike. (1994). Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green. Translated by Danny Lewis and Ulrike Bode. San Francisco: City Lights Books. Original edition in German, 1992.
- Rockwell, Lew. "What is Left? What is Right?" The American Conservative. August 28, 2006.
- Boaz, David. "Ron Paul and the Libertarians". Cato Institute. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
- Julian Sanchez and David Weigel. . Reason. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - Murphy, Robert. "In Defense of the Mises Institute". Retrieved September 1, 2013.
- Coates, Te-Nehisi. "Old News". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
- Boaz, David. "Ron Paul's Ugly Newsletters". Cato Institute. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
- Coates, Te-Nehisi (Dec. 20, 2011). "Ron Paul's Shaggy Defense". The Atlantic. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - http://gene-callahan.blogspot.com/2012/01/murphy-on-lvmi.html Gene Callahan's Blog. January, 2012
- Callahan, Gene (January 2, 2012). "Murphy on LvMI". Gene-callahan.blogspot.com
- "Mises Institute Books".
- "The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics".
- "Journal of Libertarian Studies".
- "Are you an Austrian?". Mises.org. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- Kling, Arnold. "The Sect of Austrian Economics" TechCentralStation Daily. November 11, 2003.
- "Austrian Scholars Conference" Mises.org
- http://mises.org/events/171#faculty
- "Awards Prizes Scholarships Honors". Mises Institute.
External links
- The Ludwig von Mises Institute
- The Circle Bastiat (blog) (since March 2012)
- Mises Economics Blog (archive) (up to March 2012)
- Online Archive of the Rothbard-Rockwell Report