Kenneth Minogue

Kenneth Minogue, c. 1980s

Kenneth Robert Minogue (September 11, 1930– June 28, 2013) was an Australian conservative political theorist who was Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Honorary Fellow at the London School of Economics.

Life

Kenneth Minogue was born on September 11, 1930 in Palmerston North, New Zealand. He was educated in Australia, attending Sydney Boys High School and the University of Sydney, graduating in 1950.

He traveled to London in 1951 where he spent a short time as a writer and then a teacher. After being rejected by the London School of Economics (LSE) when he applied to their Masters program, he enrolled in an evening school Bachelors program in Economics, which he completed in three years. He spent a year teaching at the University of Exeter and then returned to London to teach at the LSE at the invitation of Michael Oakeshott.

In 1954, he married Valerie Pearson Hallett, with whom he had a son and a daughter. After their marriage ended he remarried, to Beverly Cohen, who predeceased him.

Minogue worked at the LSE for forty years, rising from Assistant Lecturer to full Professor of Political Science in 1984. He continued to live in London after his retirement in 1995, holding the titles Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Honorary Fellow at LSE and remaining active as a scholar.

Kenneth Minogue died on June 28, 2013 on board a flight returning from the Galapagos Islands to Guayaquil, Ecuador. He had been attending a meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society, of which he was the former president.

Career

Minogue had a long career as a scholar, teaching and writing in the fields of economics and political science. After graduating from the London School of Economics (LSE), where he was a student of Michael Oakeshott, he spent a year teaching at the University of Exeter. He then taught at the LSE until his retirement in 1995.

Minogue wrote academic essays and books on a great range of problems in political theory. His 1963 book The Liberal Mind, about the perversion of the liberal label by radical leftists became popular internationally. Minogue argued that genuine liberalism rests on the tradition of thinkers like Adam Smith, Benjamin Constant, Adam Ferguson, Alexis de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill, who built the foundation for a conservative perspective. Minogue defended civility, decency, and moderation against globalists and leftists, and advocated an honest and transparent public sphere where individuals can freely pursue their own ideas of happiness.

Minogue edited and introduced the Everyman's Library edition of Hobbes' Leviathan, was a columnist for The Times and The Times Higher Education Supplement, and contributed to The New Criterion and Daily Mail. He was Senior Research Fellow with the Social Affairs Unit in London.

In 1976 Minogue issued a report to help modernize Shiraz University in Iran. In 1986 he presented a six-part television program on Channel 4 about free market economics called The New Enlightenment. He wrote a study on Maori-Pākehā relations (the latter is the Maori term for New Zealanders of European descent) for the New Zealand Business Roundtable which was published in 1998 published as Waitangi Morality Reality.

From 1991 to 1993 Minogue was chairman of the euro-sceptic Bruges Group. From 2000, he was a trustee of Civitas. He served as President of the Mont Pelerin Society from 2010. In 2003, he received the Centenary Medal from the Australian government. He was also involved with the Centre for Policy Studies and the European Foundation.

Major works

• The Liberal Mind. Liberty Fund,1963. ISBN 978-0865973084
• Nationalism. Basic Books, 1967. ASIN B0006BRF56
• The Concept of a University. Transaction Publishers, 1974. ISBN 978-0765808479
• Contemporary Political Philosophers. Routledge, 1976. ISBN 978-0416833706
• Alien Powers: The Pure Theory of Ideology. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1985. ISBN 978-1933859798
• Thatcherism: Personality and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, 1987. ISBN 978-0333447253
• Politics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0192853882
• Conservative Realism: New Essays in Conservatism. HarperCollins, 1996. ISBN 978-0002557696
• The Silencing of Society. Social Affairs Unit, 1997. ISBN 978-0907631736
• Waitangi: Morality and Reality. New Zealand Business Roundtable, 1998. ISBN 978-1877148361
• The Servile Mind: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life. Encounter Books, 2010. ISBN 978-1594033810

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Franco, Paul, and Leslie Marsh (eds). A Companion to Michael Oakeshott. Penn State University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0271054070
• John O'Sullivan, Kenneth Minogue Center for Policy Studies, July 4, 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
• Obituary: Professor Kenneth Minogue The Telegraph, July 2, 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2014.

Credits

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