william-foster

Few political questions return as reliably as the question of government size. Every generation seems to rediscover it in a new form. Sometimes the argument centers on taxes and spending. Sometimes it shifts toward regulation, bureaucracy, healthcare, pensions, industrial policy, or national security. In one era the concern is the welfare state. In another it […]

The Road to Serfdom remains one of the most debated works in twentieth-century political economy. It is short enough to read in a few sittings, but dense enough to sustain months of discussion. That combination makes it unusually well suited to reading groups: it offers a clear thesis, memorable warnings, and a set of arguments […]

The discussion began not with applause but with the quiet clink of porcelain. Tea cups settled onto wooden desks in a softly lit seminar room overlooking a narrow Oxford street. Outside, bicycles leaned against ancient stone; inside, students gathered for an evening conversation that felt less like a lecture and more like an invitation to […]

On a quiet Hilary Term evening, a small lecture room fills slowly. Laptops open, printed drafts shuffle, and the low hum of anticipation settles over the audience. Tonight’s event is not a keynote lecture by a visiting judge or a policy panel with seasoned scholars. It is something different: a student essay showcase dedicated to […]

On a damp Michaelmas evening, the stone steps of a college quad glisten under the glow of yellow lantern light. Students in dark coats cross the courtyard, their footsteps echoing softly against centuries-old walls. Inside a modest lecture room — oak-panelled, slightly too warm, faintly smelling of old books — chairs are being arranged in […]

Policy debates at their best do not produce slogans. They produce clarity. They force participants to define terms they usually leave vague, to explain trade-offs they would rather ignore, and to admit the limits of their preferred tools. That was the most valuable outcome of this term’s policy debate: it sharpened the underlying questions that […]

Intellectual traditions remain alive only when they are debated rather than repeated. The recent session of the Hayek Discussion Group offered precisely this kind of engagement: not a ceremonial tribute to Friedrich A. Hayek, but a rigorous examination of his central arguments and their relevance to modern governance. Rather than treating Hayek as a political […]

Economic liberty is one of the most frequently invoked concepts in political debate—and one of the least carefully examined. It is praised as the engine of prosperity, criticized as a cover for inequality, and sometimes treated as a simple synonym for “less government.” Our recent speaker spotlight aimed to move the discussion beyond slogans. Instead […]

Every academic term has its own mood. Some begin with a sense of urgency shaped by headlines and deadlines; others begin more quietly, with a slower return to reading, debate, and the discipline of sustained thought. Our term opening lecture was designed to do one thing above all: set an intellectual tone. Not a tone […]