INVENIRE

The Western world has rejected oligarchic and autocratic governmental structures. Foolishly, we have pushed them aside, denouncing them as immoral, favouring liberal democracies instead. Contradicting nearly all history, we view these two conditions (wealth and democracy) as inseparable. When we look to the poorest regions of the world, this ill-found sentiment is only reaffirmed; it is easy to look to a despot in Africa and shout, "Look! You need democracy to succeed." However, a simple review of the histories' of developed countries tells otherwise. Despite its seemingly successful practice in the Global North, democracy hinders the development of the Global South. Foremost, we must address the most obvious contention: it is true that nations like Taiwan, New Zealand and Norway are both developed and democratic. Furthermore, it is true that there are nations like North Korea and Chad that are both poor and under authoritarian regimes. However this correlation is mislead...

Intelligence is one of the most misunderstood concepts imaginable. Contrary to popular belief, intelligence is not too complex to be summarised; researchers found a method of doing so over a century ago. It is not easily changeable after childhood and is largely inherited. Lastly, intelligence has important ramifications, ranging from life expectancy to criminality. Although there are myriad types of intelligence tests, researchers in this field have observed that the level of correlation between intelligence tests that purport to measure different aspects of cognitive ability is high. This correlation was labelled g and is now what scientists are referring to when discussing intelligence. G was first proposed by English psychologist Charles Spearman, in his paper "General Intelligence" Objectively Determined and Measured. Spearman examined the results of various tests of both crystallised and fluid intelligences and noted a significant correlation between seemingly unrelate...

Prolonged wars, although often criticised, can act as the origin of a nation's empire. As a result of failed Western intervention operations in Asia and the Middle East, the idea of long wars has become even more unpopular. Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese military general, made the claim, in his renowned The Art of War, that there "is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare." While it is true that long wars often hurt countries, I disagree with Sun Tzu’s summary. His assertion  was the culmination of a long description of the various costs associated with war. Among other things, Sun Tzu cites the cost of weaponry, the strength expended while laying siege to a town and the cost of providing for soldiers; “if the campaign is protracted [prolonged], the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.” While I accept that prolonged warfare discourage political stability in a nation, typically dampens national morale and has long-reaching human costs...

The Electoral College is as essential to maintaining American federalism as the Bill of Rights. The system for electing American presidents is fit for purpose. For the President of the United States to be effective, he must unite the Union. We must recognise that the United States is different from other nations in that it is not a nation in the traditional sense, the American culture is not derivative of one ethnicity. America was not settled with ideas of national unification in mind and so national unity must be fought for. If the President does not unite the Union, the effects are dire. In 1860, Lincoln, despite winning the popular vote, won less than 3% of the Maryland vote, less than 1% of the Kentucky vote, and received no votes in the South. Predictably, the Civil War followed. The primary area of concern with the Electoral College comes in its preference for voters who live in low-population states. In 2016, a Wyomingite had 268% more voting power than a Texan did, when el...

Foreign aid is a disaster. It often acts against the interest of the British people, while also doing little to help the intended recipients. I will outline why we should discontinue our foreign aid budget, and instead pledge the money to ensuring the welfare and protection of the British people. As the result of a 1970 UN resolution, the United Kingdom, amongst many other developed nations, pledged to spend 0.7% of its gross national product on official development assistance, which is usually referred to as foreign aid. The goal of 0.7% was supposed to have been achieved by the middle of the decade. However, almost 50 years after the resolution was officially recognised, the UK is one of just six countries that are currently observing the resolution; the other five are Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark and the Netherlands. This means that, in 2017, the UK gave over £14 billion in economic aid to other nations. In contrast, France, which has a similarly sized economy to the UK, ...

The preservation and revival of British wildlife is an element of conservatism that has been forgotten. In contrast, so-called conservatives have concerned themselves more with corporate profits than the heartlands of our nations. The free market and the subsequent Industrial Revolution have been the cause of many major successes for humanity. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, the world’s first middle class began to develop, steam engines were developed, and cities began to expand at unprecedented rates. Libertarians are quick to look at this material improvement and conclude that an eternal industrial revolution would make us happier. They assume this means we're on the right path. But they couldn’t be more oblivious. In a 2018 YouGov survey on young people, technology and happiness, 27% of young people, despite the material prosperity of our age, felt that their life had no meaning. The destruction of our environment is almost certainly instrumental in this. Numerous ...

The days of laissez-faire politicians are over. This news is disappointing to many, including myself; will we be forced to abandon tried and tested economic truths for the hope of a single vote in the North? Alas, the problems we find in democracies . The causes of this are twofold: although the collapse of the Soviet Union was a great victory for the capitalist right, it also manifested itself as a problem for the Right. The Right no longer had a great ideological enemy, it could no longer talk about the threat of a communist imperial regime occupying the West; they could no longer defend capitalism by talking about the failures of communism. In 1975, President Reagan spoke of communism as "a disease" and most are familiar with his 1983 Evil Empire Speech. Moreover, the fall of the Soviet Union also manifested itself as an opener for debate concerning economic policy. As increasingly more people grew up without a communist state being a world superpower, increasingly, people...