Sarah Thomas is a research associate for Libertarianism.org at the Cato Institute and a former Cato intern. She is interested in political theory and intellectual history.
Sarah Thomas evaluates Tocqueville’s Democracy in America in light of the American Founding’s 250th anniversary, emphasizing two underappreciated themes: democracy as providential and conducive to peace, and American constitutionalism in relation to race. The essay also reflects on how Tocqueville might assess American democracy today, given progress in equality yet rising centralization.
Sarah Thomas reviews Ludwig von Mises’s Liberalism, appreciating his humane account of classical liberalism in its political and economic ideas, while recognizing challenges to his cosmopolitan idealism in today’s context.
Sarah Thomas reviews Norberto Bobbio’s Liberalism and Democracy, appreciating its comprehensive intellectual history while critiquing its procedural account of democracy, which neglects the element of recognition vital to both liberalism and democracy.
Sarah Thomas reviews Cass Sunstein’s new book On Liberalism, finding it worthwhile in articulating the meaning of liberalism in our cultural moment. While there is much to value in Sunstein’s genealogy of liberalism, the vision of liberalism he offers is overly capacious, with inner tensions from accommodating positive liberty. Sunstein’s liberalism thus fails to drive a discernible political program.
