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Adam Smith Institute
The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) is a UK-based neoliberal think tank and lobbying group, named after Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher and classical economist. The Institute advocates free market and classical liberal ideas, primarily via the formation of policy options with regard to public choice theory, which political decision makers seek to develop upon. ASI President Madsen Pirie has sought to describe the activity of the organisation as "[w]e propose things which people regard as being on the edge of lunacy. The next thing you know, they're on the edge of policy".
The ASI formed the primary intellectual force behind the privatisation of state-owned industries during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher,[better source needed] and alongside the Centre for Policy Studies and Institute of Economic Affairs advanced a neoliberal approach toward public policy on privatisation, taxation, education and healthcare. A number of the policies presented by the organisation were adopted by the administrations of John Major and Tony Blair and members of the ASI have also advised non-United Kingdom governments. Beyond policy development, the organisation advocates free market ideas through the publication and distribution of literature, the promotion of Tax Freedom Day, the hosting of speaker events for students and young people, media appearances and blogging.
The ASI is rated as one of the least transparent think tanks in the United Kingdom in relation to funding and received 3% of its funding from the tobacco industry in 2011.
Madsen Pirie and brothers Eamonn and Stuart Butler were students together at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Pirie left in 1974 to work for the Republican Study Committee in Washington, D.C., and then took up a professorship in Philosophy at Hillsdale College. He was joined there by Stuart Butler while Eamonn Butler went to work with Edwin Feulner, who became co-founder and director of the free-market think tank The Heritage Foundation.
After their experience in the United States, they returned to the United Kingdom in 1977 to found their own think tank, called the Adam Smith Institute. After a year, Stuart Butler returned to the United States as Vice President of the Heritage in charge of domestic policy while Eamonn Butler remained with Madsen Pirie as co-directors of the institute.
One of their St Andrews friends, Douglas Mason, who had been active in the university's Conservative Association, did his most influential research and writing for the institute. Mason became one of its regular authors.
The ASI's Omega Project (1981–1983) led by Peter Young produced a series of 19 papers shadowing each Department of State and advocated such things as the compulsory contracting-out of most local services such as refuse collection, the replacement of much of the welfare state by private insurance and further privatisation of public sector services and industries, including aspects of police services.
The Margaret Thatcher era saw the think tank movement come of age and achieve influence and with the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the ASI was one of three relied upon by the Thatcher government for policy. Unlike the CPS, which had been established by Thatcher and Keith Joseph; and the IEA, which focused on more theoretical matters, the ASI was well-placed to produce bold and direct policies. Despite this role, the Institute developed an iconoclastic reputation, cynical about politicians, but enthusiastic to engage with them. The institute's relationship with Thatcher was not without troubles. Although Madsen Pirie was the architect of much of the privatisation policy, he had no emotional ties to Thatcher, nor did the ASI propose policies on a range of social issues despite its Thatcherite reputation.
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Adam Smith Institute
The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) is a UK-based neoliberal think tank and lobbying group, named after Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher and classical economist. The Institute advocates free market and classical liberal ideas, primarily via the formation of policy options with regard to public choice theory, which political decision makers seek to develop upon. ASI President Madsen Pirie has sought to describe the activity of the organisation as "[w]e propose things which people regard as being on the edge of lunacy. The next thing you know, they're on the edge of policy".
The ASI formed the primary intellectual force behind the privatisation of state-owned industries during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher,[better source needed] and alongside the Centre for Policy Studies and Institute of Economic Affairs advanced a neoliberal approach toward public policy on privatisation, taxation, education and healthcare. A number of the policies presented by the organisation were adopted by the administrations of John Major and Tony Blair and members of the ASI have also advised non-United Kingdom governments. Beyond policy development, the organisation advocates free market ideas through the publication and distribution of literature, the promotion of Tax Freedom Day, the hosting of speaker events for students and young people, media appearances and blogging.
The ASI is rated as one of the least transparent think tanks in the United Kingdom in relation to funding and received 3% of its funding from the tobacco industry in 2011.
Madsen Pirie and brothers Eamonn and Stuart Butler were students together at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Pirie left in 1974 to work for the Republican Study Committee in Washington, D.C., and then took up a professorship in Philosophy at Hillsdale College. He was joined there by Stuart Butler while Eamonn Butler went to work with Edwin Feulner, who became co-founder and director of the free-market think tank The Heritage Foundation.
After their experience in the United States, they returned to the United Kingdom in 1977 to found their own think tank, called the Adam Smith Institute. After a year, Stuart Butler returned to the United States as Vice President of the Heritage in charge of domestic policy while Eamonn Butler remained with Madsen Pirie as co-directors of the institute.
One of their St Andrews friends, Douglas Mason, who had been active in the university's Conservative Association, did his most influential research and writing for the institute. Mason became one of its regular authors.
The ASI's Omega Project (1981–1983) led by Peter Young produced a series of 19 papers shadowing each Department of State and advocated such things as the compulsory contracting-out of most local services such as refuse collection, the replacement of much of the welfare state by private insurance and further privatisation of public sector services and industries, including aspects of police services.
The Margaret Thatcher era saw the think tank movement come of age and achieve influence and with the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the ASI was one of three relied upon by the Thatcher government for policy. Unlike the CPS, which had been established by Thatcher and Keith Joseph; and the IEA, which focused on more theoretical matters, the ASI was well-placed to produce bold and direct policies. Despite this role, the Institute developed an iconoclastic reputation, cynical about politicians, but enthusiastic to engage with them. The institute's relationship with Thatcher was not without troubles. Although Madsen Pirie was the architect of much of the privatisation policy, he had no emotional ties to Thatcher, nor did the ASI propose policies on a range of social issues despite its Thatcherite reputation.