[![Media Name: cato40webbanner-cls.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/images/cato40webbanner-cls.jpg?itok=Ewd9tpTx)](/sites/cato.org/files/images/cato40webbanner-cls.jpg) 

# Future of the Free Society: A Cato 40th Anniversary Online Forum

In honor of the fortieth anniversary of our founding, the Cato Institute has organized a special online forum on the future of the free society.

We have reached out to leading thinkers and challenged them to answer the following questions: What are the most pressing challenges that free societies face in the coming years? What is the most important reason for optimism about the free society? What is the most important but still unappreciated idea that lies just ahead? What’s the most important thing that you have learned about free societies that you wish you knew all along?

Their answers will be found in the brief essays below, starting in March.

The goal is to create a lively, challenging, and intellectually diverse series of essays — one befitting of the Cato Institute’s intellectual tradition and one that will leave readers talking for a long time to come.

**Experts**

[[![Media Name: balcerowicz.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/images/balcerowicz.jpg?itok=SsGUWBC5)](/sites/cato.org/files/images/balcerowicz.jpg)](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/recent-attacks-against-freedom) 
[**Leszek Balcerowicz**](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/recent-attacks-against-freedom) 
Warsaw School of Economics 

[[![David Boaz](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/styles/resp__img__peoplelisting__ipad-portrat/public/authors/crops/dboaz.jpg?itok=l-Ri3dYY)](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/resp__img__peoplelisting__ipad-portrat/public/authors/crops/dboaz.jpg)](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/may-quiet-revolution-continue) 
[**David Boaz**](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/may-quiet-revolution-continue) 
Cato Institute 

[[![Media Name: cowen.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/styles/resp__img__peoplelisting__ipad-portrat/public/authors/crops/cowen.jpg?itok=vAcvItwN)](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/resp__img__peoplelisting__ipad-portrat/public/authors/crops/cowen.jpg)](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/between-authoritarianism-human-capital) 
[**Tyler Cowen**](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/between-authoritarianism-human-capital) 
George Mason University 

[[![Media Name: brian-doherty-headshot.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/images/brian-doherty-headshot.jpg?itok=p4-yTuZY)](/sites/cato.org/files/images/brian-doherty-headshot.jpg)](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/free-trade-under-attack-it-must-be-defended) 
[**Brian Doherty**](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/free-trade-under-attack-it-must-be-defended) 
*Reason* magazine 

[[![Media Name: friedersdorf.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/images/friedersdorf.jpg?itok=iw4g0I5Z)](/sites/cato.org/files/images/friedersdorf.jpg)](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/beware-backlash) 
[**Conor Friedersdorf**](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/beware-backlash) 
*The Atlantic* 

[[![Media Name: deirdre-mccloskey.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/images/deirdre-mccloskey.jpg?itok=H9wSDD7_)](/sites/cato.org/files/images/deirdre-mccloskey.jpg)](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/excuses-statism-staying-poor) 
[**Deirdre N. McCloskey**](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/excuses-statism-staying-poor) 
University of Illinois-Chicago 

[[![Christopher A. Preble](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/styles/resp__img__peoplelisting__ipad-portrat/public/authors/crops/preble.jpg?itok=gZGWhwiI)](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/resp__img__peoplelisting__ipad-portrat/public/authors/crops/preble.jpg)](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/long-view-gives-me-reasons-optimism) 
[**Christopher A. Preble**](https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-online-forum/long-view-gives-me-reasons-optimism) 
Cato Institute 

*Join the conversation on Twitter with [\#Cato40](https://twitter.com/hashtag/cato40), and [follow the hashtag](https://twitter.com/hashtag/cato40) for updates.*