(Foundational) Constitutional Issues, Federalism, Federal Agencies and Administrative Law

Move Fast and Regulate Later: The Paradox of China’s Economic Dynamism AA

By By Carl Benedikt Frey July 31, 2026

Principles of Government · August 24, 2025 ·

By Carl Benedikt Frey July 31, 2026 – How does a country with such casual regard for the rule of law produce so much dynamism?…The answer is that the rule of law, in China …is not one thing. It has a liberal side—secure property rights, courts that constrain the state… It also has a regulatory side that can wall off competition… America used to be alive to this distinction. It is no longer…….CHINA’S DYNAMISM does not come from the absence of law. It comes from the sequence in which laws are enacted. The Communist Party allows firms to scale in regulatory gray zones, when a sector serves growth, employment or strategic competition….The pattern recurs: firms scale first; law and politics arrive later, often together…. Dynamism occurs when newcomers can innovate before lawyers—or regulators—arrive….…But every rule proposed today should be tested against a simple counterfactual: had it been on the books a decade ago, would the firm we are now regulating have ever been built? Read More

America Needs the Filibuster AA

By Ben Sasse July 19, 2026

Principles of Government · July 26, 2026 ·

By Ben Sasse July 19, 2026 – The filibuster prevents the dramatic pendulum swings that are the natural result of simple-majority lawmaking. Every election and every vote becomes an existential crisis in a system that no longer plods through checks and balances but instead rushes to European-style referenda…. It’s a partisan’s dream: Court packing, new states, federal takeover of state elections…Sweeping changes to nearly every aspect of national and local life….The reality is that once the dam breaks, the stakes will climb endlessly higher. Read More

Big Government Inevitably Invites Corruption AA

By Marian L. Tupy July 20, 2026

Principles of Government · July 23, 2026 ·

By Marian L. Tupy July 20, 2026 – But what makes such conduct possible in the first place? Democrats rightly blame the man….But there is another culprit. The power of the federal government, which commands the fate of every major enterprise in America. A tariff waiver can mean billions for one company and bankruptcy for its rival. An antitrust filing can erase a decade of shareholder value in an afternoon. A procurement decision can build a company, and a regulatory finding can bury one. When the government holds that much influence, officials need not even demand tribute. Tribute arrives on its own…. When government can make or break a business, businesses will invest in making friends with government, and the return on a lobbyist will exceed the return on an engineer. Corruption and discretionary power go hand in hand. Read More

Justice Thomas: Progressives vs. the Declaration AA

By Justice Clarence Thomas speech excerps

Principles of Government · July 14, 2026 ·

By Justice Clarence Thomas- Progressivism was the first mainstream American political movement—…—to openly oppose the principles of the Declaration. Progressives strove to undo the Declaration’s commitment to equality and natural rights, both of which they denied were self-evident….But we were fortunate not to trade our Lockean bounds for the supposedly enlightened world of Hegel, Marx and their followers. Fascism—which, after all, was a national socialism—triggered wars in Europe and Asia that killed tens of millions. The socialism of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China proceeded to kill more tens of millions of their own people. This is what happens when natural rights give way to the higher good of notions of history, progress, or, as Thomas Sowell has written, the “vision of the anointed.” Read More

Rediscovering Order in an Age of Populism AA – lengthy article

By Mike Pence & Ed Feulner - Summer 2025

Principles of Government · November 1, 2025 ·

By Mike Pence & Ed Feulner – Summer 2025 – An existential identity crisis now grips the American right. A political movement once united by a commitment to limited government, moral order, and a robust defense of American ideals now appears fractured, its purpose clouded by populist grievances and ideological drift. The urgency of this moment demands a return to first principles, along with a reexamination of what conservatism means and what it seeks to achieve in an age marked by cultural upheaval and political polarization. Read More

America Needs the Filibuster AA

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(Foundational) Constitutional Issues, Federalism, Federal Agencies and Administrative Law

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Characteristics of Government

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