Announcing the Third Annual Douglas B. Rogers Conditions of a Free Society Essay Competition, hosted by the Center for Political and Economic Thought at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, PA. The competition is meant to encourage undergraduate students to discuss themes of Western Civilization such as individual freedom, limited constitutional government, free market economics, and the philosophical and moral foundations of America and the West.

This year students are asked to address those themes in connection with the following quotation from James Madison:

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

The competition is open to all full-time undergraduate students currently registered in any field of study at a college or university in the United States or Canada. The first place winner will receive $2,000 and an invitation to attend an awards dinner and lecture by Dr. John Larrivee of Mount St. Mary’s University to be held at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania on March 11, 2015. Second and third place winners will receive invitations to said awards dinner and $1,000 and $500 respectively.

Essays that are, in the exclusive opinion of the judges, of publishable quality will, with the consent of the author, be eligible for publication in the Center’s journal, Citizens and Statesmen: An Annual Review of Political Theory and Public Life.

Essays should be a minimum of 2,500 words. There is no maximum length. Submissions should be sent in Microsoft Word format to Mary Beth McConahey at [email protected] by January 9, 2015. Winners will be notified in February.

Last year’s winning essays can be found here: http://www.stvincent.edu/Majors_and_Programs/Centers_and_Institutes/Cent….