Douglas B. Rogers Essay Competition

About the Competition

Doug’s parents, sister, brother-in-law, 3 nieces and nephew along with numerous friends have chosen to honor his memory by creating the essay competition. Doug very much enjoyed teaching and inspiring undergraduate students to seek knowledge through truth. This program hopes to continue that legacy as well as providing meaningful rewards to promising young authors.

The Douglas B. Rogers Essay Competition, now in its tenth year, is open to all full-time undergraduate students currently enrolled at the time of essay submission in any field of study at a college or university in North America. This annual program invites aspiring
students to submit essays which are prompted by a provocative quotation from one of Doug’s favorite Economists, Political Theorists,
or Philosophers.

This essay competition is hosted by the Abbeville Institute in Auburn, AL. Essay submissions will be due by March 15, 2022. Winners will be notified in May, 2022. 1st place: $2000, 2nd place: $1000, 3rd place: $500.

Entry Information

Edmund Burke, March 22, 1775

Excerpt from: Speech on Moving Resolutions for Conciliation With the Colonies

”… America gentlemen say is a noble object – it is an object well worth fighting for. Certainly it is, if fighting a people be the best way of gaining them. Gentlemen in this respect will be led to their choice of means by their complexions and their habits. Those who understand the military art will of course have some predilection for it. Those who wield the thunder of the state may have more confidence in the efficacy of arms. But I confess, possibly for want of this knowledge, my opinion is much more in favor of prudent management than of force; considering force not as an odious, but a feeble instrument for preserving a people so numerous, so active, so growing, so spirited as this, in a profitable and subordinate connection with us. My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not always the effect of force, and armament is not a victory. If you do not succeed, you are without resource: for, conciliation failing, force remains; but force failing, no further hope of reconciliation is left. Power and authority are sometimes bought by kindness; but they can never be begged as alms by an impoverished and defeated violence. A further objection to force is that you impair the object by your very endeavors to preserve it. The thing you fought for is not the thing which you recover, but depreciated, sunk, wasted, and consumed in the contest. Nothing less will content me than whole America…..

Could the utilization of Burke’s sentiments have been employed to reduce sectional tension between the North and South prior to the American Civil War? Deal with political, economic, social, cultural and religious factors in your essay.

The essay contest is hosted by the Abbeville Institute and submissions are due by March 15, 2022 via a Word document and must be sent to Dr. Jeff Rogers at: jeffrogers@abbevilleinstitute.org. Entrants must include their name, college or university affiliation, current student classification, and contact information. Essays should be between 2,500 and 5,000 words and should be double spaced with 12 pt font and one inch margins.

Douglas Bruce Rogers

Doug Rogers was an Economist and Research Scholar of great insight who inspired many others with his enthusiasm, integrity, humor and humility.

Dr. Rogers graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Economics in 2007 from West Virginia University and entered the graduate program at George Mason University pursuing his PhD in Economics. He was awarded the Israel M. Kirzner Award for Outstanding Dissertation in Austrian Economics for his “Organizing Crime: Towards a Theory of the Criminal Firm.” His research was published in 2012 in the Supreme Court Economic Review, Vol20, as the integral component of “ Organizing Crime”, by Dr. Peter Leeson. His other publications include: “Violence, Access and Competition in the Market for Protection”, March 2013 European Journal of Political Economics, “ Why Governments Fail” written collaboratively with Dr. Peter Boettke for The Adam Smith Institute, and a book review of Peter Ubel’s book, Free Market Madness. Additionally, Doug served as Research Assistant for Dr. Peter Leeson’s book, The Invisible Hook.

“Tis a gift to be simple. Tis a gift to be free. Tis a gift to come down to where we ought to be. Tis a gift to love and have that love returned. Tis a gift to be taught and richer gift to learn” …Simple gifts, an enduring part of Doug’s legacy.