Cato Institute

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The Cato Institute is an influential libertarian non-profit public policy research foundation (think tank) headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Institute's stated mission is "to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace" by seeking greater involvement of the "lay public in questions of public policy and the role of government." Although Cato is non-partisan, it is ideologically libertarian, putting it in league and at odds with both the Democratic and Republican parties, depending on the issue.

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[edit] History

The Institute was founded in San Francisco, California in 1977 by Edward H. Crane and initially funded by Charles G. Koch. The Institute is named after Cato's Letters, a series of British essays penned in the early 18th century expounding the libertarian principles of John Locke, which were in turn named after Cato the Younger, the defender of republican institutions in Rome.

An important founding member was Murray Rothbard, one of Cato's original three board members and the one who suggested its name. Rothbard later came into sharp disagreement with other members, and was purged in 1981. [1] He later became the leading scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a rival think tank.

In November 2002, shortly after Cato was named the "Best Advocacy Website" by the Web Marketing Association, the Alexa ratings service issued a report saying that it was "the most popular think tank site over the past three months," receiving a total of 188,901 unique visitors during the previous month of September[2].

[edit] Publications

The Cato Institute publishes the periodicals Cato Journal, Regulation, Cato Supreme Court Review, and Cato Policy Report; policy studies; and books, such as Social Security: The Inherent Contradiction; In Defense of Global Capitalism; Voucher Wars; You Can't Say That!: The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws; Peace and Freedom: A Foreign Policy for a Constitutional Republic; Restoring the Lost Constitution; and Reclaiming the Mainstream: Individualist Feminism Reconsidered. They published Inquiry magazine from 1977 to 1984.

[edit] Stances on issues

Although it is often said to have Republican leanings, Cato frequently differs with Republican Party positions, particularly on social issues. Cato was opposed to President George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq. Additionally, Cato is adamantly opposed to the War on Drugs and the USA Patriot Act. While Cato is against government support of "faith-based organizations," it tends to support school vouchers. Cato also disagreed with President George H. W. Bush's decision to fight the [first] Gulf War. Cato has also criticized the 1998 settlement that many U.S. states signed with the tobacco industry. [3]. In 2003 the Cato Institute filed a brief in the United States Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas arguing that U.S. Constitution protects the right of citizens to engage in non-fraternal, non-commercial sexual relations between consenting adults in private.

The Institute may be best known for its advocacy of privatizing Social Security. The New Republic wrote in 2001, "Cato is an indispensable source of expertise--with two decades of pro-privatization research and lobbying under its belt, it knows more about the issue [of Social Security] than just about anyone else in Washington," though the magazine is currently hostile towards Cato's stance[4]. The Cato Institute established its Project on Social Security Privatization in 1995, renaming it the Project on Social Security Choice in 2002.

The Cato Institute holds regular briefings on global warming with known climate 'skeptics' as panelists. In December 2003, panelists included Patrick Michaels, Robert Balling and John Christy, all of whom disagree with widely held views of climate change.

"No known mechanism can stop global warming in the near term. International agreements, such as the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, would have no detectable effect on average temperature within any reasonable policy time frame of 50 years or so, even with full compliance." Source: Chapter 47 of the Cato Handbook for Congress, 107 Congress

In response to the World Watch Report in May 2003 that linked climate change and severe weather events: "It's false. There is absolutely no evidence that extreme weather events are on the increase. None. The argument that more and more dollar damages accrue is a reflection of the greater amount of wealth we've created." - Jerry Taylor Source: "Enviro Trends: Poor to Bear Brunt of Climate Change. 3 May 2003"

[edit] Controversy

In December 2005, Doug Bandow, a senior scholar at the Cato Institute, admitted taking secret payments from Republican Party lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for writing columns for the Copley News Service favorable to Abramoff clients. It is unclear whether the views expressed in these columns were Bandow's own or were adopted for the sole purpose of advancing Abramoff's agenda. The news service suspended Bandow's column, and Bandow resigned from Cato on December 15.

[edit] Funding

The Cato Institute has a budget of about $14 million a year, derived from 15,000 contributors. More than 70 percent of its funding comes from individuals, with about 10 percent each from corporations and foundations. According to one critical source, in the 17 years spanning 1985 to 2001, the Institute received $15,633,540 in 108 separate grants from eight different foundations:

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has served on the board of directors of Cato.

The Knight Ridder newspapers reported that the Institute had received backing from "the American International Group, an insurance and financial services company whose business includes managing U.S. retirement plans" as Social Security reform has become a more prominent issue. [5]

[edit] Notable associates

[edit] Policy scholars

[edit] Adjunct scholars

[edit] Fellows

[edit] See also

[edit] Former employees

[edit] External links

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