Looking Back at Liberalni Institut’s 2020 Summer School

Liberalni Institut

The Liberální Institut has been organizing the Mises Academy of the Liberal Institute (MALI) since 1996. It is an annual event where we debate with students such topics as economics, politics, history, philosophy, among others.

For the last five years, the venue of our summer school has been the pleasant environment of the Parkhotel in a lovely Czech township of Český Šternberk with a view of the beautiful private Gothic Český Šternberk Castle, which was restituted in 1992 to the heir of the original owner Zdeněk Sternberg.

About half of the fifty seminar participants had classic lectures, which also include Q&A sessions. These participants joined with us at the summer school for the first time, they were enrolled in the Mises Academy.

The other half of the participants, who were with us for the second time (or some of them for the fifth time), were enrolled in the Mises Seminar — where the lecturers in advance send texts that were to be discussed during the class. These classes thus were discussion seminars rather than a classic lecture.

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, four lecturers canceled during the last two weeks before the seminar. We were, however, very grateful that we were able to organize the event without any restrictions.

Nevertheless, we implored all the participants not to come if they, even at the very last minute, were not feeling 100% well and safe to go. Luckily, none of the participants has informed us after the event that they had contracted the novel coronavirus.

This is a list of this year’s lectures:

Dominik Stroukal, director of the Mises Academy and chief economist at the Roklen Group, gave a lecture on optimistic progress and a seminar on the theory of surplus value in Marxist economics
Jan Mošovský, Students for Liberty, gave a lecture on the theory of anarchy and a seminar on Carl Schmitt
Petr Bartoň, Natland, gave a lecture on regulation of businesses and a seminar on Schumpeterian economics
Mário Havel, Paralelná Polis, gave a lecture on free enterprise in a decentralized society and a seminar on cryptoanarchy
Jakub Jedlinský, University of Economics, gave a lecture on the business cycle and a seminar on the Minsky Moment
Martin Pánek, director of the Liberální Institut, gave a lecture on trade wars and a seminar on non-profit entrepreneurs
Josef Tětek, TopMonks, gave a lecture and a seminar on bitcoin
Pavel Potužák, University of Economics, gave a lecture on the economic crisis and a seminar on hyperinflation
Pavel Peterka, CETA, gave a lecture on the theory of public choice and a seminar on the theory of the firm
Pavel Ryba, Golden Gate, gave a keynote lecture on gold as an investment tool

We have published the background texts for the seminars here.

Both lectures and seminars take place in an informal, friendly atmosphere. The debates are held until late at night. In addition, Saturday afternoon was in the spirit of rest and football and volleyball matches, and in the evening, there was a panel debate on cryptocurrencies.

Participants of our summer school become leaders of successful liberal projects. For example: Martina Bacíková is the director of the Institute of Economic Education, which has already completed three years of the Economic Olympiad. Jan Škapa and Michal Šindlář became high-ranking managers of Students for Liberty. Pavel Peterka is a CETA analyst. We are looking forward to where the students from this year’s summer school will be in a few years!

Lecturing such students is a great honor and responsibility. As you can see, a quality student pool is an attraction for great lecturers who like to spend one summer weekend at this event. We believe that a quality lecturer staff is also an attraction for students to sign up for this stimulating environment, where even after the lectures, informal discussions are held between students and lecturers.

In a sense, this four-day continuous debate between ten experienced liberals and fifty students is perhaps even more important than the formal lecture section.

The weather was absolutely beautiful this year. And students, as far as we can tell, were happy to have spent the time with us.

Learn more in Czech at http://misesakademie.cz.