The Antigua Forum: A Place of Learning for Political Reformers in the Classical Liberal Tradition

Despite the fall of the Berlin Wall and optimism that future political struggles would lead to an inexorable march towards democracy, markets and individual liberty, success in market-liberal reform has been overshadowed by failure. Often, the result has been pessimism and reform fatigue. To many, future opportunities for reform appear bleak. At the same time, we lack a fundamental understanding of the reform process. Little systematic research exists, and the crucial questions have not been asked: What were the strengths and weaknesses of original proposals? Why did some reforms succeed and others fail, and what can we learn from both? What is the role of a leader? What political system provides the most fertile soil for market-liberal reforms? How do we overcome reform fatigue? The Antigua Forum seeks to create an environment for exactly this kind of learning, aimed at those who are optimistic that significant reforms can be achieved. The heart of the project (output) is an annual gathering in Antigua, Guatemala to bring together people who have played a key role in market-liberal reforms in their own country with highly leveraged active reformers and with provocative thinkers. The idea is to provide a safe environment in which players can meet each other and candidly share experiences and details in order to critically analyze what works and what doesn't. The outcome will be a network of people and a convergence of knowledge (outputs include case studies, a reform/reformer databank and videos) that will help us understand the conditions for successful market-liberal reform. The enduring impact will be to lay groundwork for the formulation of a general political economy of market-liberal reform and to increase the potential for such reforms, so that people may freely and peacefully create wealth and prosperity through competition and cooperation, and realize their maximum potential as human beings. Funding is requested for 2.5 years