Cato Unbound
Cato Unbound is a web-only publication of the Cato Institute that features a monthly open debate between four people: one lead essayist and three other people.
History
The first issue of Cato Unbound was in December 2005. As of September 2013, Cato Unbound has been published every month since the first issue.
The idea of Cato Unbound is attributed to Brink Lindsey, Vice-president for Research at the Cato Institute, and Will Wilkinson, then a Fellow at the Cato Institute.[1] Cato Unbound was first edited by Lindsey, Wilkinson, and Jason Kuznicki.
Lindsey and Wilkinson left Cato in September 2010.[1] Editorial responsibility for Cato Unbound was then taken over by Kuznicki and Gene Healy.
Format
The publication features a lead essay, followed by three response essays by separate people. After that, all four participants can write as many responses and counter-responses as they want for the duration of that month. The conversations happens in real time, i.e., all participant responses are posted as soon as they draft them. Comments are not allowed on the posts, but trackbacks are, so that other parties can write their own blog posts or articles in response to the issues raised in the conversation.[2]
The conversations for each Cato Unbound topic are available as e-books on Amazon Kindle.[3]
Topics and contributors
Although the Cato Institute's stated mission is to promote libertarianism, Cato Unbound features a wide range of topics many of which have only a tangential connection with libertarianism. The participants in each month's discussion are selected for their expertise and opinions on the topics. Most participants do not work for Cato and many of them are not libertarian. Some participants hold and express views antithetical to the Cato Institute's libertarian ideals. Usually, the participants are selected so that they have disagreements on at least some of the points that are likely to be discussed. The Cato Institute does not take responsibility for the views expressed by participants on Cato Unbound.[4][5]
Some examples of the topics covered in Cato Unbound are death and life extension, "voter ignorance", neoconservatism, the war on drugs, libertarian paternalism, classical liberalism, copyright law, terrorism, IQ, foreign aid, seasteading, the "decline of men", and the necessity of newspapers.
The following is a partial list of notable people that have contributed to Cato Unbound: Peter Thiel, Tom G. Palmer, Bryan Caplan, Matthew Yglesias, Richard Thaler, John Cochrane, Robin Hanson, James C. Scott, William Easterly, Jonathan Zittrain, Lawrence Lessig, Charles Murray, and Michael Huemer.
References
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