Acton’s French Connection : From Inspiration to Partnership
France has always been part of the Acton Institute’s story.
When Fr. Sirico and Kris Alan Mauren founded the Acton Institute in 1990 to promote a free
and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles,
among their main sources of inspiration were several French liberal thinkers such as Jean-
Baptiste Say, Frédéric Bastiat, and Tocqueville. These thinkers emphasized the importance of
the free market, limited government, the dignity of the human person, and individual responsibility as preconditions for the material and moral development of society.
While their era was witnessing the rapid rise of collectivist ideas in the aftermath of the
Enlightenment, these thinkers remained uncompromising critics of what they perceived as
increasing encroachments on individual freedom by those in power. Their heritage still
inspires Acton’s vision and action to this day, calling for further engagement to recruit French
defenders of the free and virtuous society and provide them with the resources to promote the
liberal tradition in a country where it once flourished.
“I used to see my work mainly through a national lens […] However, Acton University
pushed me to think more broadly about the moral foundations of liberty and the role of
subsidiarity and virtue in society.”
Accordingly, among the participants to Acton University 2025 was the largest French
delegation to date. It consisted of a diverse group of leveraged and talented young leaders
active in law, politics, economics, energy, history, and more. Some of the participants
held leadership positions in organizations such as the French National Assembly, the European
Parliament, and UNI, France’s largest conservative student union. These fellows brought with
them their distinct perspective as French conservatives and were confronted to the vitality of
the American liberty movement. In the words of an attendee:
“I used to see my work mainly through a national lens […] However, Acton University
pushed me to think more broadly about the moral foundations of liberty and the role of
subsidiarity and virtue in society.”
Activist and IFP director Alexandre Pesey, one of Acton’s longest standing French contacts,
helped recruit these outstanding fellows to further grow the Institute’s network in France.
These intellectual and personal relationships speak to France’s central and enduring role in
Acton’s European vision. If you’d like to support our work in defense of the free and virtuous
society in France and throughout Europe, you can contribute here:
