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The Ludwig von Mises Institute (LvMI) is a paleolibertarian academic institution, based in Auburn, Alabama, dedicated to research and scholarship in economics, philosophy, and political economy. It generally advances a view of government and economics inspired by the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises. Its founding President is Lew Rockwell.

History

The Ludwig von Mises Institute was established in 1982 under the direction of Margit von Mises, widow of Ludwig von Mises, who chaired the Institute's board until her death in 1993. The Institute's founder and current president is Llewellyn Rockwell Jr. Murray Rothbard was a major influence on the Institute's activities, and he served as its vice president until his death in 1995.

Beliefs

The Institute's stated goal is to "undermine statism in all its forms." It opposes both communism and the American System school of economics. The Institute runs various seminars and a comprehensive Web site aimed at teaching about the Austrian School of Economics. In addition, it funds scholarly research in the area of Austrian Economics all over the world through various endowments and fellowships.

In addition to its commentary on Austrian economics, the Institute takes a critical view of all U.S. government activities, foreign and domestic, in American history. Unlike some neoconservative organizations, the paleolibertarian Institute takes an antiwar, anti-interventionist stand on American foreign policy, and considers war to be an ultimate violation of rights to life, liberty, and property, for Americans and foreigners, with destructive effects on the market economy and empowering effects for the government. The Mises Institute's website offers a large number of writings in support of individualism, and explicitly critical of collectivism, fascism, socialism, and communism. An upcoming seminar, for example, explicitly condemns fascism.

The Institute's web site frequently criticizes Abraham Lincoln's handling of the American Civil War and supports a right of secession.

Paleoconservative Themes

The LVMI holds a critical view of President Abraham Lincoln, who Institute scholars believe to have contributed to the growth of authoritarianism in the United States. LVMI senior faculty member Thomas DiLorenzo authored a well known critical biography of Lincoln entitled The Real Lincoln in which he contends that the 16th 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 of Lincoln, who he attributes with the creation of "a French Revolutionary style unitary state" and "centralizing totalitarianism."

The Institute's published works include an essay by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, "Natural Elites, Intellectuals, and the State" that claims that democracy is inferior to the voluntary rule of "natural elites," and deprecates the rule of the "people" as wrongly based on "the presumed decency of the 'common man.'" Hoppe also condemns meddling by the state through such programs "affirmative action and forced integration," which he claims is "responsible for the almost complete destruction of private property rights, and the erosion of freedom of contract, association, and disassociation."

Controversies

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The liberal Southern Poverty Law Center has criticized the LvMI; citing some mutual affiliations between the Institute's faculty, such as editorial vice president Jeffrey Tucker, and the League of the South, an organization the SPLC alleges is racist, the Center called the Mises Institute a "Neo-confederate organization." . The SPLC also criticizes the LvMI for taking a position highly critical of Abraham Lincoln . Defending the Ludwig von Mises Institute, several affiliates have denounced the organization for making allegations that they deem irresponsible. Myles Kantor, for example, has denounced the SPLC, stating that it engages in fear mongering and the smearing of legitimate, non-racist groups in pursuit of profitable financial contributions and ideological goals .

Within the political right, LvMI has had disputes with other libertarian and conservative organizations. The neo-conservative Claremont Institute has sharply different views from the LvMI on certain issues, such as Declarationism and Lincoln, who it strongly supports. The Claremont Institute's Harry V. Jaffa has debated LVMI's Thomas DiLorenzo on the subject of Lincoln and several writers for each organization have sparred in editorial publications over this subject aimed at each other .

Faculty and administration

• Administration
  • Lew Rockwell, President
  • Patricia Barnett, Vice-President
  • Jeffrey Tucker, Editorial Vice-President

• Senior faculty
  • Walter Block
  • Thomas DiLorenzo
  • David Gordon, Editor, Mises Review
  • Jeffrey M. Herbener
  • Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Distinguished Fellow, former Editor, Journal of Libertarian Studies
  • Roderick Long, Editor, Journal of Libertarian Studies
  • Joe Salerno
  • Mark Thornton

• Adjunct faculty
  • Gene Callahan
  • Thomas Fleming
  • Paul Gottfried
  • Stephan Kinsella, former Book Review Editor, Journal of Libertarian Studies
  • Gary North
  • Paul Craig Roberts
  • Clyde N. Wilson

• Former faculty
  • Justin Raimondo
  • Joseph Stromberg, JoAnn B. Rothbard chair in history

External links

• About the mission, history, activities, and faculty of the Mises Institute
• The Ludwig von Mises Institute

• Political and economic thinktanks