Karl Marx called some of capitalism’s inherent troubles “contradictions,” and while he was wrong about many things, his perceptions of capitalism were very accurate.

But there’s a problem, according to upcoming speaker Michael Munger: every flaw in markets is worse under socialism. At the micro level, every flaw in consumers is worse, and in fact much worse, in voters.

In this lecture, Dr. Munger draws from the Public Choice branch of political economy to evaluate capitalism, socialism, and democracy on an even playing field, and finally answer the question: is capitalism sustainable?

Sponsored by the Institute for Humane Studies and the Social Sciences Symposium Series.

About the Speaker

Michael Munger is a Professor of Political Science, Economics, and Public Policy at Duke University. His Economics PhD was awarded from Washington University in St. Louis in 1984. He worked as a Staff Economist for Dr. Wendy Gramm at the Federal Trade Commission in the first Reagan Administration, and has had academic appointments at Dartmouth College, University of Texas-Austin, and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He directed the MPA Program at UNC, and chaired the Political Science Department at Duke from 2000 to 2010. He currently directs the interdisciplinary Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program at Duke.

His research interests include regulation, political institutions, and political economy. His most recent book was Tomorrow 3.0: Transaction Costs and the Sharing Economy, published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. Munger is a Senior Fellow of the Independent Institute and the AIER, and is a former President of the Public Choice Society (1996-1998). He served as an editor of Public Choice (2005-2010) and Independent Review (2015 to present). He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with wife Donna Gingerella and loyal dogs Murphy and Skippy Squirrelbane.