"Last fall a group of young, eager to learn individuals from all over the world gathered for a week-long seminar in the middle of beautiful Slovenian landscape with blue-colored lake Bohinj and Alpine mountains reaching to the sky.

The Liberty Seminar 2011 was a unique experience, giving me a quick though clear insight into political philosophy I have never encountered before. For many years I have been told and thought that individual's civil or economic activities/relations have to be somewhat regulated, no matter that such action infringes on individual's freedom. The Liberty Seminar introduced me to a true liberal (classical liberal or libertarian) thought, which primarily argues for individual liberty and responsibility. I am astonished that until attending the Liberty Seminar I have never encountered the liberal school of thought.

During the seminar I started asking myself whether it would be better to leave the economy alone (as liberals argue) and not impose "precautionary" government regulation on it. At the same time, I realized that there are other schools of thought about the economy and the role of the government in the society beside the one we were thought in school and which is blindly accepted by our government officials, media, etc. As such, I started seriously doubting that state regulation and interference with the economic activities of the individuals leads to the economic growth and prosperity.

The Liberty Seminars was a great springboard for how I am going to see things and relationships in the future. From now on I will definitely distinguish between a true liberal idea and the one pretending to be liberal."

Žiga Beton, Slovenia, participant of the 2011 Liberty Camp Seminar






"Society is not a collective entity, it is a unique heterogeneous combination of different individuals, with different ideas, different wishes, different values, but with the same rights. Liberty Seminar was an excellent opportunity to explore the importance of individual rights and to celebrate freedom."

Katerina Sapkova, Macedonia, participant of the 2011 Liberty Camp Seminar

"Beautiful alpine lake, in-depth discussions about liberty and economics, and of course, the great company of fellow scholars and students, what more could one ask? The Liberty Seminars are an amazing way to spend a week. The mixture of group outdoor activities and indoor discussions is stimulating for both the mind and body. Rather than dry lectures, the seminars are interactive presentations and exchanges among scholars and students, as well as among the students themselves.

The environment was incredibly conductive to debate and discussions. Dinners and lunches were generally informal, but engaging and presented an opportunity for participants to network. The diverse background and nationalities of students, and scholars, injected a variety of perspectives. I sincerely felt that I did as much learning as I did teaching. It was truly a rewarding and memorable experience.

Tanja, Catinca and Boris did an amazing job organizing the seminars."

"The Liberty Seminars which I was privileged to participate in this year quite honestly exceeded my expectations, and this despite the fact that I had already led one seminar the summer before.

This year's students were among the most motivated and intellectually curious that I have ever worked with, as evidenced by the spirited discussions that went on outside of class during meals, coffee breaks, and other social time. Particularly encouraging were the level of inquisitiveness displayed by a majority of the participants, which was almost unparalleled in my experience, and the sophistication of the questions they posed. It was a very cohesive and lively group, and the assistance and input of new staff member Catinca Hanganu was especially welcome.

In sum, this year's seminars were among the highlights of my teaching career so far. I only hope that the seminars of the future can live up to the same high standard."

"It was my honor and a privilege to participate for the second time at Liberty Seminars in Bohinj. I love lecturing at the Seminar, since participants are very knowledgable, and mostly, extremely curious, which ranks high in my books. Moreover, the topics discussed are close to my heart. Also, the organization and supporting activities are superb. Keep up the good work!"

As we end this year's edition of the Liberty Seminars, we hope to have successfully challenged at least a few statist ideas, raised countless questions and opened a window into the world of opportunities within the libertarian movement.

We would like to deeply thank our sponsors for trusting us and supporting our mission. We would also like to thank our faculty members for their eloquence in explaining the core principles of freedom, during discussions as well as in informal settings.

But mostly we would like to thank our participants for thinking critically and openly, while engaging both faculty and staff in conversations. We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors and we hope to hear from them soon as they take the path of academia, politics, journalism, political consultancy, entrepreneurship or non-profit organizations.

Yours truly,
2011 Liberty Seminars Staff

We began the last day of the seminar with a discussion led by Phillip Hanson of Birmingham Universityon the topic of Varieties of Capitalism in Ex-Communist Countries.

Milica Vukotić of Montenegro's University of Donja Gorica followed, engaging the participants on the topic of private versus public education. The discussion was less formal, as everyone shared their own experience with (mostly) public education and learned about UDG's timeline and evolution.

After lunch, we engaged into the last discussion of the seminar Philip Hanson's Why is it so Hard to Modernize Russia? , where we also touched upon Dmitri Medvedev's recent announcement that Vladimir Putin will be the next Russian president.

The most expected moment of the seminar--the debates--shortly followed. Having Tanja Štumberger and Milica Vukotić as judges, Vid Greganovič and Dana Kushpler (sister of Liberty Seminar 2008 alumni Bohdan Kushpler) won the first debate on the topic of mandatory annual test for heavy drugs for the Presidents, MPs, Prime Minister's cabinet and judges. At the second debate on life-long terms for judges Dominik Weber and Jakub Pivoluska won.

The graduation ceremony with our traditional green diplomas was followed by the delicious pizza and refreshing drinks at a nearby restaurant. Strangely enough, no singing was involved.

After breakfast, we delved right into the participants' presentations of rule of law and governance in their respective countries. Though the focus was on rule of law and governance, we also heard many thoughts on economic and political freedom.

The presentations detailed and interesting, whil providing us with new insights into Slovenian, German, Slovakian, Romanian, Bulgarian and Ukrainian societies.

In the afternoon, Urban Vehovar joined the list of speakers. He delivered two talks on the current situation in Slovenia, like the recent vote of no confidence to the government, low political culture and increased brain drain.

Eager to prepare for Sunday's debates, the four colored themed teams spread around the hotel lobby and conference rooms, devising their strategy for debate. Some of them were captured on camera, uttering the famous words 'And if they mention the unreliability of the hair tests, we will reply by saying ... [undistinguishable murmur]'.

Once the plans were made, arguments rehearsed and speakers appointed, everyone headed to the last opened bar in the nearby village Stara Fuzina, where the treacherous game of inebriating one's enemy began. Traditionally, we ended the night with another spontaneous choir, this time performing In the Jungle and already a classic Trololo.

Friday delved into the environmentalist issues and policies. We began the day by watching a 15 minute Izzit movie Unstoppable Solar Cycles, followed by John Stossel's Tampering with Nature. Mišo Alkalaj joined the faculty and engaged the participants with a talk on Global Warming: Science and Politics.

After lunch we headed for our traditional canoeing on the serene, mystical Lake Bohinj. Upon arrival to the hotel in the afternoon, Mišo's second lecture on The Green Lies unveiled the negative consequences of environmental activism and EU regulation on individual rights, economic development and livelihood of (mosly poor) people.

The third day of the seminar started with a discussion with Primož Kocuvan that dealt broadly with public choice theory, the (non)clearance of markets and the negative impacts of over-regulated markets.

We continued with Tanja Štumberger's discussion explaining Ayn Rand's view of the individual rights and the role of the government to protect them, which offered the participants a framework for their presentations on The Rule of Law and Governance in their own countries scheduled for Saturday.

After picnic at Lake Bohinj, we headed toward Slavica Waterfall, the Bled Castle and enjoyed local desserts at Bled. In the free time at Bled, some explored the town while some took a walk around the Lake Bled, before heading back to our hotel at Lake Bohinj.

Wednesday was focused on the economics mostly, starting off with a screening of Overdose: A Film about the Next Financial Crisis. followed by Mark Calabria's talk on The Financial Crisis: A Failure of Government or Markets?. He focused on the consequences of the Dodd-Frank Act, with respect to the oversight of credit rating agencies and the role of the Fed as a risk regulator within the system.

The first day of the Freedom and Transition Seminar started with Katarina Zajc's talks on The Rule of Law and the Free Society and The Judicial Output and Wellbeing, at both emphasizing the importance of the predictability of law and the credibility of courts. Both bring about problems with concession contracts, as these are long term.



Tanja Štumberger engaged the participants into a discussion by explaining the differences between liberal, classical liberal and libertarian, and whether or not they making their ideological views known to the general public.

The last day of the Liberty Camp 2011 started with a screening of Commanding Heights' episode The Battle of Ideas. On the same topic, Dan Mitchell in his presentation 'Government in the Economy: Keynes v Hayek' compared the two fundamentally different views on the role of the state.

During the Q&A the Scandinavian states were offered as a counter-example that big government might not always be an impediment to growth. Dan cleared out this very frequent misunderstanding by explaining that these states became rich through laissez faire policies before having a bloated public sector.

The academic part of the seminar ended with Mark Calabria's discussion on The Dollar, Euro and Renminbi: The Future of International Currency Competition, concluding that fiat money can be only as good as the politics that is behind it.

The most nerve wrecking moment of the seminar followed: the civil and economic liberties debates between the participants. For the past years, this last test of the seminar has brought forth some excellent public speakers so the stakes were high.

The first debate was 'Government should have the power to regulate business in order to protect the environment', where the proposition team won. Ejona Shundi and Alexey Ilin were on the winning team. The second topic was 'Parents have a right to homeschool their children' and the proposition won again, thanks to the rhetorical skills of Ivan Ratković and Yury Perfilyev.The debaters of the winning teams took home David Boaz's Libertarianism: A Primer as prize.

At the graduation ceremony that followed, the participants received diplomas, which were in the seminar's themed green color.

The Liberty Camp 2011 came and went really fast, giving answers and raising many other new intellectual questions. One thing is certain, many participants that did not have a strong background in economics have discovered this new fascinating discipline through the libertarian perspective.

Good luck to the participants in their new endeavors!

Saturday kicked off with a documentary Overdose: A Film about the Next Financial Crisis, narrated by a Cato scholar and author Johan Norberg. Shortly following was David's last talk at the seminar on the Banking and Business Cycle with an emphasis on the process fiat money is created by central banks and the impact the monetary policy has on the economy.

After lunch, Cato's Mark Calabria and Dan Mitchell joined the staff, making Saturday the economics majors' delight.

Mark's talk was on Deregulation, Crisis and Reform. The Financial Crisis: A failure of Government or Markets?. He suggested a plan of reform including the elimination of Federal Reserve's bailout ability and privatization of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

In the afternoon, Dan Mitchell explained that governments could get out of the debt crisis by making sure that government spending should grow slower than nominal GDP. The caveat is that most politicians are not fond of this solution because by doing that they limit their ability to 'buy votes with other people's money'.

Friday started off with another Izzit short film, Freedom's Sound, a documentary on Estonia's fast economic growth followed by the economic liberalization and privatization. Afterwards, David Greenwald explained the nature and consequences of copyright and patent law. This discussion took place on a pier of Lake Bohinj, which is surrounded by breathtaking Julian Alps.

Participants heard that intellectual property cannot coexist with real property rights. David mentioned open source programs as a good example of how a dynamic industry can evolve in the absence of intellectual property. As the libertarians disagree on this topic, our debate was very stimulating.

Mateja Rek joined the Liberty Camp faculty and lead a discussion on The Power of Global Civil Society, where she stressed the importance of the civil initiatives and philanthropy. After lunch, we headed out to test our canoeing skills on Lake Bohinj. Although skeptical about authority, most soon learned through trial and error that choosing a "captain" to coordinate them is not that bad.

Before dinner, new faculty member Tanja Kosi talked in depth about Labor Markets: Regulation vs. Flexibility. At her second discussion, Mateja delved into the influence of the media in shaping our political and personal preferences. Media literacy, eco campaigns and anti-tobacco campaigns were offered as example of the present status quo, which is rarely disputed.

After dinner we celebrated Ivan Ratkovic's birthday. It looks like a lot of libertarians are born in September.

Thursday kicked off with students' presentations of civil and economic liberty. The presentations of the individual countries were based on the Economic Freedom of the World Index and various civil freedom indicators.

In three hours of presentations, we learned a lot about the 12 countries the participants come from and concluded that these countries are much more similar when it comes to the size of the government and state-owned industries, as well as corruption and violations of the freedom of the press than we thought.

After lunch outdoors, we hiked through the woods to reach beautiful waterfall Savica. We continued the sightseeing with a visit of Bled castle and Lake Bled. In the evening, we had delicious pizza and celebrated Alina Ledyukova's birthday.

The liberty campers started the day watching the groundbreaking 20/20 episode "Greed" with John Stossel, which questioned the participants' view of self-interest and philanthropy.

The Liberty Camp 2011 started off with a discussion on the differences between liberals, classical liberals and libertarians, which was lead by Tanja Štumberger. The discussion transitioned into a vivid debate on the morality of the public education. As education is both an asset and a virtue, is it relevant whether it is financed through taxation or voluntary contributions? On a few occasions, the discussion leader mentioned Cato scholar James Tooley's book A Beautiful Tree, which documents that private schools are providing quality education to millions of poor children in the developing world.

After the dinner, we watched The Power of Choice - The Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman. Primož Kocuvan lead a follow-up discussion, presenting the main ideas of Monetarism and sharing his thoughts on Milton Friedman's legacy.

Participants are expected to attend all sessions, where they engage critically with the readings and the issues discussed. Since the seminar is based on active participation of the participants, the participants are expected to read the assigned readings... [more]