Cato Institute

The Cato Institute is an influential non-profit public policy research foundation (think tank) with strong libertarian leanings (despite wide public perception that it is a "conservative" think-tank), headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is named after Cato's Letters, a series of early 18th century British essays expounding the libertarian principles of John Locke. Collected and published in sets of volumes, Cato's Letters could be found in the libraries of American patriots and helped lay the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution. The pseudonymous authors of the Letters named their essays in turn after Cato the Younger, the defender of republican institutions in Rome.

Related Topics:
Think tank - Libertarian - Conservative - Washington, D.C. - Cato's Letters - John Locke - Philosophical - American Revolution - Cato the Younger

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Founded in San Francisco, California in 1977 by Edward H. Crane and Murray Rothbard (who later broke with Cato), and initially funded by Charles G. Koch, 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."

Related Topics:
San Francisco, California - 1977 - Edward H. Crane - Murray Rothbard - Charles G. Koch - Public policy - American - Government - Liberty - Free market - Peace

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Because of their strong libertarian orientation, as opposed to left-wing or right-wing orientation, members of the Cato Institute staff are frequently cited as non-partisan experts on many news programs. Some have criticized this as misleading, as although the Institute is indeed non-partisan it is not non-ideological.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39246-2002Nov25?language=printer

Related Topics:
2002 - Alexa - Ratings

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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!; 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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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 than just about anyone else in Washington," though the magazine is currently hostile towards Cato's stancehttp://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?pt=Oibv363p69/K9x2o/MgaxR==. The Cato Institute established its Project on Social Security Privatization in 1995, renaming it the Project on Social Security Choice in 2002. The co-chair of the Project, José Piñera, was in charge of the privatization of the Chilean system under Augusto Pinochet. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/business/worldbusiness/27pension.html?pagewanted=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1107097330-kxj1zpNpMx5f8NeUBv5MSQ In recent years though, the World Bank and other organizations have found that this system has not been able to provide even a minimum of retirement funds for over half of the Chilean population. http://www.americaspolicy.org/commentary/2005/0503chilessref.html

Related Topics:
Social Security - The New Republic - José Piñera - Chile - Augusto Pinochet - World Bank

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

http://wbln1018.worldbank.org/LAC/LAC.nsf/0/146EBBA3371508E785256CBB005C29B4?Opendocument

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~