I have been a long time reader of Mises.org, lewrockwell.com, and of Austrian economic texts and authors like Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, Woods, etc. I recently discovered something called "The Cato Institute". They seem to be free market, but do they follow Austrian economics? I know most Austrian thinkers like Rothbard support Austrian anarchocapitalist views, but I was wondering if Cato did as well, or if they were more minarchist or Chicago School in their thinking. While I am on the subject, I am a big supporter of Ron Paul, have read his books, been a rally of his, and know he contributes to Mises. Is he an anarchocapitalist though or does he believe in government police, justice, and infrastructure? Thank you everybody.
Ron Paul is generally an advocate of constitutional minarchy. He might find a stateless society appealing, but he can't explicitly endorse it because it's not politically acceptable. He has made comments about how - if people want to just live by themselves and hurt no one and receive no government benefits - they should be allowed to. This is something of a roundabout way of endorsing a stateless society.
Cato is libertarian in the broad sense. Often known as "beltway libertarian". Critics would say that they water libertarianism down too much, in order to gain credibility among the political elite. Supporters would acknowledge there is a division of labor in the supply of intellectual libertarianism - there need to be principled, extreme purveyors of libertarianism, but also institutions that acknowledge the broad themes of libertarianism, and labor on the margins of the political world in order to gain adherents and give libertarianism mainstream credibility. In terms of economics, Cato generally wouldn't come down in a specific "school" of economics, though traditionally I believe they have been more favorable to the Chicago School and Friedman.
Laughing Man: sicsempertyrannis:IIRC he denies the plausibility of anarchy in The Revolution: a Manifesto. I have the book in my library. Do you remember what page or chapter it is in?
sicsempertyrannis:IIRC he denies the plausibility of anarchy in The Revolution: a Manifesto.
I have the book in my library. Do you remember what page or chapter it is in?
From memory no, but it was early on in the book.