John Curtis Samples (born c. 1950s) is an American political theorist, author, and vice president of the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...

. , he serves as a member of Facebook's independent Oversight Board. Samples received a B.A. in political science and government from Eastern Kentucky University in 1978, and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

in 1984. As a graduate student in political science at Rutgers in the 1970s, Samples met Michael T. Hayes, who remembered Samples as "one of the very best students I had encountered during my years there"; Samples later directed Hayes on the writing of the 2001 book ''The Limits of Policy Change: Incrementalism, Worldview, and the Rule of Law''.Michael T. Hayes, ''The Limits of Policy Change: Incrementalism, Worldview, and the Rule of Law'' (2001), p. ix. After completing his Ph.D., Samples taught for various periods at institutions including Texas State University, Rutgers,

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, and

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

, while also serving in other professional capacities. He was Vice President for Programs and Program Officer of the

Twentieth Century Fund The Century Foundation (established first as The Cooperative League and then the Twentieth Century Fund) is a progressive think tank headquartered in New York City with an office in Washington, D.C. It was founded as a nonprofit public policy r ...

from 1987 to 1992, and then director of the

Georgetown University Press Georgetown University Press is a university press affiliated with Georgetown University that publishes about forty new books a year. The press's major subject areas include bioethics, international affairs, languages and linguistics, political sc ...

until 2000. In that year, he joined the Cato Institute, a "U.S. libertarian think tank" as director of its Center for Representative Government, and in 2012, he became Vice President of the Cato Institute. Samples has been described as a "public intellectual" who "writes extensively on social media and speech regulation", and who "advocates against restrictions on online expression". His 2002 edited book, ''James Madison and the Future of Limited Government'', was reviewed by '' The Independent Review'' as "a debater’s handbook", in which Samples' piece "introduces us to Madison the advocate of direct democracy".James E. Bond and Thomas E. Borcherding, "James Madison and the Future of Limited Government", '' The Independent Review'', Vol. 8, No. 2 (Fall 2003). Samples' 2010 book, ''The Struggle to Limit Government'', was criticized as being too generous to the rhetoric of

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

, characterized in the book as the only recent Republican president to uphold principles of limited government, though government grew under his watch as it did under others.Anthony Gregory, "The Struggle to Limit Government", '' The Independent Review'', Vol. 16, No. 1 (Summer 2011). In May 2020, he was selected to serve as one of the 20 founding members of Facebook's Oversight Board.

Books

* ''James Madison and the Future of Limited Government'' (Cato Institute, 2002) * With Chris Edwards, ''The Republican Revolution 10 Years Later: Smaller Government or Business as Usual?'' (Cato Institute, 2005) * With Michael P. McDonald, ''The Marketplace of Democracy: Electoral Competition and American Politics'' (Brookings Institution Press, 2007) * ''The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform'' (University of Chicago Press, 2008) * ''The Struggle to Limit Government: A Modern Political History'' (Cato Institute, 2010)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samples, John Eastern Kentucky University alumni Rutgers University alumni Texas State University faculty Georgetown University faculty Johns Hopkins University faculty Cato Institute people Facebook Oversight Board members Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Living people