Adam Smith Institute
The Adam Smith Institute is a think tank based in the United Kingdom, named after the father of modern economics, Adam Smith. Although non-partisan, it espouses free market and classical liberal views, in particular by creating radical policy options in the light of public choice theory, which politicians can then develop. Its president, Madsen Pirie, has said "We 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 Institute was highly influential in UK public policy, and was "a pioneer of privatisation"[1] in the UK and elsewhere. Early Institute papers proposed the outsourcing of local government services (1980), the fundamentals of the poll tax (1981-1985) and the deregulation of road transport and privatisation of the National Bus Company (1980), all of which were put into practice in the UK. It also developed the education reforms implemented by the Education Reform Act 1988, which allowed state schools to take over their own budgets, and the plans for an internal market in the National Health Service. The privatisation of British Rail in 1997 was also based on a plan suggested by the Institute. Other influences include the UK's cutting of the highest rate of income tax from 83% to 40% in the late 1980s, and its liberalisation of alcohol licensing laws.
In the early 1990s, some Institute staff founded a consulting arm, Adam Smith International Ltd. Although the two are frequently confused, this is now an entirely independent company which no longer has any ties to the Institute.
History
Dr Madsen Pirie, Eamonn Butler and Stuart Butler (the Butlers are brothers) were students together at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. In 1973, they left Scotland to work with Edwin Feulner, who became co-founder of the free-market think tank the Heritage Foundation, in 1973.
After their apprenticeship in the United States, Pirie and Eamonn Butler returned to Scotland in 1977 to found their own think tank, the Adam Smith Institute, set up with the help of Antony Fisher of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Stuart Butler is a conservative activist in Washington, D.C., remaining at the Heritage Foundation.
The ASI recruited Douglas Mason, another St Andrew's alumnus, who did his most influential work for the Institute. Mason became one of its regular authors[2]. In 1982, he led the Adam Smith Institute's "Omega Project" report on Local Government Policy. There he argued for the compulsory contracting-out of most local services such as refuse collection, proposed scrapping the existing local-government tax, in favour of a per-capita charge. Revising the Rating System (1985), a reform recommendation for the rating system, was wholeheartedly adopted by the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
Other policy recommendations for which Mason was responsible included the privatisation of the Royal Mail (The Last Post -1991); the privatisation of free British reading (Ex Libris - 1986); the privatisation of the Forestry Commission[3]; the complete removal of arts subsidies (Expounding The Arts - 1987); and the abolition of restrictions on drinking (Time To Call Time - 1986).
Most recently, the Institute has released a series of Roadmap to Reform papers, calling for shifts in public policy in Health, Deregulation and Europe. In 2006, the Institute released a paper calling for a rethink of Britain's countryside policy[4]
The Adam Smith Institute is a member of the Stockholm Network.
Links
Books
- Eamonn Butler, The Future of the NHS (one chapter; 2006) (ISBN 1-85811-369-5), edited by Dr. Michelle Tempest.
See also
References
- ^ The Influence of the Adam Smith Institute, Philip Morris, c 1994
- ^ Douglas Mason, An engineer of the Thatcher revolution and 'father of the poll tax', Alex Singleton, The Guardian, December 16, 2004
- ^ Douglas Mason, Local councillor known as the 'father of the poll tax', Eamonn Butler, The Independent, December 14, 2004
- ^ BBC News: 'Woods and homes' green belt call, BBC News, April 17, 2006