Human beings want to be the architects of their own lives and to be products of their own choices. Indeed, they do not want their possibilities circumscribed by their race, gender, or ethnicity, or to have their futures dictated by others. They deeply want the freedom to pursue their own plans and projects, to become the types of people they wish to be, and to live lives with purposes and meanings of their choosing. They want to succeed on their own terms and to fail because of their own shortcomings.
Resilience, or the ability of an individual or a community to rebound from challenges, is crucial in a world with freedom. A world of possibilities, however, is also full of challenges. Thriving societies and successful individuals have the ability to draw on their individual, collective and institutional resources and capacities to prepare for, survive, recover and learn from these challenges. Those who live in free communities (e.g. freedom to associate, to innovate, to utilize means at one’s disposal, etc.) are better able to work with one another to solve the big and small collective action problems that affect them. Freedom is, thus, the foundation of resilience.
Unfortunately, these important insights on freedom, resilience, and the link between the two need to be more fully studied and more deeply appreciated. Through this project, Mercatus aims to shape academic conversations around these issues of freedom and resilience (a) by supporting rigorous research of consequence that shapes economic and social inquiry within the academy and policy and (b) by engaging and training talented young students and scholars who are in the early stages of their academic/professional careers from a diversity of disciplines.
