IPA Review- August 2016

 Critiquing the idealism of Marxist intellectuals reveals the failures of leftist thought since the mid-20th century, writes Scott Hargreaves To judge Roger Scruton by his demeanour and suitably tweedy appearance, it would be easy to assume he comes from a strand of British philosophy previously personified by the later versions of Michael Oakeshott; suspicious of Continental idealism and more generally,

 The failed use of cybernetics to save the Soviet command economy acts as a cautionary tale for building the future connected network, writes Daniel Wild The story of the failed attempt to save the Soviet command economy using cybernetics (the systemisation of all organisational problems with computing technology) from 1959 to 1989, may seem distant historically, ideologically and geographically, the

Why are there certain times in history when so many geniuses inhabited the same city and changed the world together? Writes James Bolt On the 25th of January 1504 a meeting was held in Florence to decide where to display Michelangelo’s latest work David. Among those in attendance where Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Roselli, Filippino Lippi and Piero di

The outcry associated with Trump fundamentally misunderstands right-wing politics, writes Andrew Bushnell   Since the Second World War, right-wing politics in the United States has been dominated by an order of intellectuals, commentators, and institutions that together make up what has been known as the conservative movement. The movement began in the early 1950s with the philosopher Russell Kirk and

 What historical events got the West to a position today where it can worry about patchy growth wihthin a material world of unprecedented riches? writes Mikayla Novak Patchy signs of economic recovery in Australia and the rest of the Western World aside, these last few years could be best described in economic terms as a persistent ‘Great Exhaustion’. The uninspiring

Is the so-called political heyday really the decade that transformed the country? Writes Richard Allsop You could probably write a history of any decade in the nation’s 20th century and give it the sub-title ‘the decade that transformed Australia’. However, ascribing this title to the 1980s certainly has a ring of truth about it to those of us who have

 On 23 June 2016, the British people made a landmark decision to leave the European Union with the Leave vote winning by 52% to Remain’s 48%. The referendum had a turnout of 71.8%—the highest turnout in a UK-wide vote since the 1992 general election. Georgina Downer, Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs, prepared a report to outline the

A new exemption class over corporate regulation might be a better approach to innovation policy, write Sean Leaver and Jason Potts There are already a number of different regulatory types of firms available, such as sole-trader, partnerships, private companies and public companies. However, a unique characteristic of start-ups firms is that they are more likely to fail than succeed. There

Despite increased understanding of natural multi-decadal climate variability,climate scientists have by and large ignored this in their public commentaries, writes Professor Stewart Franks Over the last few years we have witnessed widespread flood events and flash flooding across eastern Australia, particularly in Queensland and northern New South Wales. Given the continued warnings of anthropogenic climate change by climate scientists, perhaps

 The illiberal nature of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act has serious ramifications for free society; write Joshua Forrester, Lorraine Finlay, and Augusto Zimmermann If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? The constitutional law equivalent of this philosophical thought experiment might be as follows—If there is