Join us for a great Italian lunch and provocative speakers on September 14th in Bellevue, at Maggiano's Restaurant!

Our topic is mass democracy. Elites in America spent the 20th century lecturing us about the unquestioned virtue of democracy and voting. But they change their tune when the wrong guy wins. Donald Trump, Brexit, and the rise of right-populist movements in Europe all challenge the West's great sacred cow.

Hans Hoppe famously reconsidered the cult of democracy in his 2001 book Democracy: The God that Failed. Democratic politicians and voters, with high time preference and no skin in the game, give us endless spending, debt, entitlements, and war — not liberty.

Our speakers will apply Hoppe's critique to the upcoming 2020 presidential election, which promises to be brutal. What are the limits of democracy in a country of 320 million people? Have we reached the end of the myth of democratic consensus? What if democratic voting, so called, doesn’t yield any compromise between Left and Right — but only creates endless division and an entrenched political class? And what might the future of democracy look like? (hint: decentralized, smaller, local)

You don't want to miss this event!

Schedule

9:30 a.m. Registration, bookstore open (Dr. Murphy is happy to autograph books)

10:00 a.m. Welcoming remarks

10:05 a.m. Darren Brady Nelson: Democracy Down Under: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

10:30 a.m. Dr. Robert Murphy: How Democracy Destroys Political Economy

11:00 a.m. Jeff Deist: Democracy as Retribution in the 2020 Election

11:30 p.m. Break, bookstore open

11:45 a.m. Q and A with Panel: A Hoppean View of the 2020 Election with Laura Davidson, Noah Bonn, Murphy, Deist

12:15 p.m. Lunch with Ilana Mercer: How Democracy Made Us Dumb

1:30 p.m. Adjourn

Saturday evening baseball game is sold out.



Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant is at Lincoln Square in Bellevue: 10455 N.E. 8th Street, Bellevue, Washington. Phone (425) 519-6476. Parking is free in the underground garage of Maggiano's. Attire is casual.

For accommodations at The Westin Bellevue near Maggiano's, call 425-638-1000 before August 23 and mention Mises Institute for a special rate of $149 per night plus tax. Or reserve a room online here.

Special thanks to the Harvey Allison family for making this event possible.