The Cato Institute is an
American libertarian think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
headquartered in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
It was founded in 1977 by
Ed Crane,
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
, and
Charles Koch
Charles de Ganahl Koch ( ; born November 1, 1935) is an American billionaire businessman. As of November 2022, he was ranked as the 13th richest person in the world on ''Bloomberg Billionaires Index'', with an estimated net worth of $66 billio ...
,
chairman of the board and chief executive officer of
Koch Industries
Koch Industries, Inc. ( ) is an American privately held multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiaries are involved in the ...
.
[Koch Industries is the second largest privately held company by revenue in the United States. ] Cato was established to have a focus on public
advocacy, media exposure and societal influence. According to the ''2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report'' (
Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program
The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) was a non-profit program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that operated from 1989 to 2021. TTCSP was originally established at the Foreign Policy Research Instit ...
,
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
), Cato is number 27 in the "Top Think Tanks Worldwide" and number 13 in the "Top Think Tanks in the United States".
The Cato Institute is libertarian in its political philosophy, and advocates a limited role for government in domestic and foreign affairs as well as a strong protection of
civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
. This includes support for lowering or abolishing most taxes, opposition to the
Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...
system and the
Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...
, the privatization of numerous government agencies and programs including
Social Security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
and the
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
, demilitarization of the police, and adhering to a
non-interventionist
Non-interventionism or non-intervention is a political philosophy or national foreign policy doctrine that opposes interference in the domestic politics and affairs of other countries but, in contrast to isolationism, is not necessarily opposed t ...
foreign policy.
History
The institute was founded in January 1977 in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
;
named at the suggestion of
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
after ''
Cato's Letters
''Cato's Letters'' were essays by British writers John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, first published from 1720 to 1723 under the pseudonym of Cato (95–46 BC), the implacable foe of Julius Caesar and a famously stalwart champion of Roman trad ...
'', a series of British essays penned in the early 18th century by
John Trenchard and
Thomas Gordon.
In 1981,
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
was removed from the Cato Institute by the board. The board wanted to move Cato into political policy making. Rothbard thought it should be devoted to scholarship.
Cato relocated to Washington, D.C., in 1981, settling initially in a historic house on
Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...
.
The institute moved to its current location on
Massachusetts Avenue Massachusetts Avenue may refer to:
* Massachusetts Avenue (metropolitan Boston), Massachusetts
** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Orange Line station), a subway station on the MBTA Orange Line
** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Silver Line station), a stati ...
in 1993. Cato Institute was named the fifth-ranked think tank in the world for 2009 in a study of think tanks by James G. McGann, PhD of the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, based on a criterion of excellence in "producing rigorous and relevant research, publications and programs in one or more substantive areas of research".
By 2011, the Cato Institute had a budget of $39 million and was "one of the largest think tanks in Washington".
Activities
Various Cato programs were favorably ranked in a survey published by the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in 2012.
Publications
The Cato Institute publishes numerous policy studies, briefing papers, periodicals, and books. Journals include the ''
Cato Journal
The ''Cato Journal'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal which covers public policy from an Austro- libertarian point of view. It was established in 1981 and is published by the Cato Institute. It publishes articles discussing politics ...
''
(since 1981) and
''Regulation'' (acquired in 1990). Other periodicals include ''Cato's Letter'', ''Cato Supreme Court Review'', and ''Cato Policy Report''. Cato published ''
Inquiry Magazine
''Inquiry Magazine'', sometimes titled ''Inquiry: A Libertarian Review'', was a libertarian magazine published from November 1977 to 1984. It was originally published by the Cato Institute, then later transferred to the Libertarian Review Founda ...
'' from 1977 to 1982 (before transferring it to the
Libertarian Review Foundation) and ''Literature of Liberty'' from 1978 to 1979 (before transferring it to the
Institute for Humane Studies
The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) is a non-profit organization that promotes the teaching and research of classical liberalism in higher education in the United States. IHS offers funding opportunities, programs, and events for faculty and g ...
). Additionally, Cato publishes numerous white papers on a wide variety of policy topics. Some notable examples include ''Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies'' (2009) by
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
and ''Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Policy Raids in America'' (2006) by
Radley Balko
Radley Prescott Balko (born April 19, 1975) is an American journalist, author, blogger, and speaker who writes about criminal justice, the drug war, and civil liberties. In 2022, he began publishing his work on Substack after being let go from ...
.
Cato also co-publishes the annual ''
Human Freedom Index'' (2015–)
with the
Fraser Institute
The Fraser Institute is a libertarian-conservative Canadian public policy think tank and registered charity. The institute describes itself as independent and non-partisan. It is headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Calgary, T ...
and is the co-publisher with Fraser of the U.S. edition of the ''
Economic Freedom of the World
''Economic Freedom of the World'' is an annual survey published by the Canadian think tank Fraser Institute.
; ; The survey attempts to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations. It has been used in peer-reviewed studies som ...
'' annual report (1996–).
Books published by the Cato Institute
* ''Social Security: The Inherent Contradiction'' (
Peter J. Ferrara
Peter Joseph Ferrara (born April 26, 1955) is an American lawyer, policy analyst, and columnist who is an analyst for The Heartland Institute. He is former general counsel for the American Civil Rights Union. A Libertarianism, libertarian scholar ...
, 1980, Cato's first book and the first case for privatization)
* ''Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought'' (
Jonathan Rauch
Jonathan Charles Rauch (; born April 26, 1960) is an American author, journalist, and activist. After graduating from Yale University, Rauch worked at the ''Winston-Salem Journal'' in North Carolina, for ''National Journal'', and later for ''The ...
, 1993, a Cato co-pub with University of Chicago Press)
* ''Patient Power: Solving America's Health Care Crisis'' (
John C. Goodman
John C. Goodman (born 22 May 1946) is president and CEO of the Goodman institute for Public Policy Research, a think tank focused on public policy issues. He was the founding chief executive of the National Center for Policy Analysis, which oper ...
and
Gerald L. Musgrave
Gerald is a male Germanic given name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Variants include the English given name Jerrold, the feminine nickname Jeri and the Welsh language Gerallt and Iri ...
, 1994)
* ''Cato Handbook for Congress'' (1995, the first in a series that eventually became the Cato Handbook for Policymakers)
* ''Cato Pocket Constitution'' (2002)
* ''In Defense of Global Capitalism'' (
Johan Norberg
Johan Norberg (; born 27 August 1973) is a Swedish author and historian of ideas, devoted to promoting economic globalization and what he describes as classical liberal positions. He is arguably most known as the author of '' In Defense of Global ...
, 2003)
* ''
The Improving State of the World: Why We're Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet'' (
Indur Goklany, 2007)
* ''The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power'' (
Gene Healy
Gene Healy (born November 16, 1970) is an American political pundit, journalist and editor. He serves as Vice President at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, as well as a contributing editor to ''Liberty'' magazine.
Education
Healy h ...
, 2008)
* ''The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey into How the World's Poorest People are Educating Themselves'' (
James Tooley, 2009, winner of the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award)
* ''The Tyranny of Silence'' (
Flemming Rose
Flemming Rose (born 11 March 1958) is a Danish journalist, author and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He previously served as foreign affairs editor at the Danish newspaper ''Jyllands-Posten''. As culture editor of the same newspaper, he was ...
, 2014)
* ''The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty'' (
Timothy Sandefur, 2013)
* ''The Fire Next Door: Mexico's Drug Violence and the Danger to America'' (
Ted Galen Carpenter
TED may refer to:
Economics and finance
* TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar
Education
* ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association
** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey
** Transvaal Education Depa ...
, 2016)
* ''Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care'' (
Charles Silver and
David A. Hyman, 2018)
* ''Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know'' (
Marian Tupy and
Ronald Bailey
Ronald Bailey (born November 23, 1953) is an American libertarian science writer. He has written or edited several books on economics, ecology, and biotechnology.
Personal life
Bailey was born in San Antonio, Texas, and raised in Washington Co ...
, 2020)
* ''School Choice Myths: Setting the Record Straight on Education Freedom'' (
Neal McCluskey and
Corey A. DeAngelis, 2020)
* ''Economics in One Virus'' (
Ryan Bourne, 2021)
* ''The Most Common Arguments against Immigration and Why They’re Wrong'' (
Alex Nowrasteh, 2021)
* ''Eyes to the Sky: Privacy and Commerce in the Age of the Drone'' (
Matthew Feeney, 2021)
* ''Why, as a Muslim, I Defend Liberty'' (
Mustafa Akyol
Mustafa Akyol (born 20 February 1972) is a Turkish writer and journalist. He is the author of ''Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty'', long-listed in 2012 for the Lionel Gelber Prize, a literary award for the world's best non-ficti ...
, 2021)
Other notable books by Cato scholars
* ''
Restoring the Lost Constitution'' (
Randy Barnett
Randy Evan Barnett (born February 5, 1952) is an American legal scholar. He serves as the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and is the director of the Georg ...
, 2003)
* ''The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism'' (2008,
Ronald Hamowy
Ronald Hamowy (; April 17, 1937 – September 8, 2012) was a Canadian academic, known primarily for his contributions to political and social academic fields. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus of Intellectual History at the Univ ...
)
* ''Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty'' (
Mustafa Akyol
Mustafa Akyol (born 20 February 1972) is a Turkish writer and journalist. He is the author of ''Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty'', long-listed in 2012 for the Lionel Gelber Prize, a literary award for the world's best non-ficti ...
, 2011)
* ''The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure'' (
John A. Allison
John A. Allison IV (born August 14, 1948) is an American businessman and the former CEO and president of the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. Allison held a number of leadership positions in BB&T Corp. from 1987 until 2010 when he retired. He n ...
, 2012)
* ''The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom'' (
David Boaz
David Boaz (; born August 29, 1953, Mayfield, Kentucky) is the executive vice president of the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank.
He is the author of ''Libertarianism: A Primer'', published in 1997 by the Free Press and described ...
, 2015, previously Libertarianism: A Primer)
* ''The Libertarian Reader'' (Edited by
David Boaz
David Boaz (; born August 29, 1953, Mayfield, Kentucky) is the executive vice president of the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank.
He is the author of ''Libertarianism: A Primer'', published in 1997 by the Free Press and described ...
, 2015)
* ''The Radio Right'' (Paul Matzko, 2020)
* ''Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Policy Forces'' (
Radley Balko
Radley Prescott Balko (born April 19, 1975) is an American journalist, author, blogger, and speaker who writes about criminal justice, the drug war, and civil liberties. In 2022, he began publishing his work on Substack after being let go from ...
, 2013)
* ''Open: The Story of Human Progress'' (
Johan Norberg
Johan Norberg (; born 27 August 1973) is a Swedish author and historian of ideas, devoted to promoting economic globalization and what he describes as classical liberal positions. He is arguably most known as the author of '' In Defense of Global ...
, 2020)
Podcasts
* ''The Cato Daily Podcast'', hosted by Caleb O. Brown, allows Cato Institute scholars and other commenters to discuss relevant news and libertarian thought in a conversational, informal manner.
* ''Power Problems'', hosted by John Glaser, is a bi‐weekly podcast offering a skeptical take on U.S. foreign policy, and discussion of today's big questions in international security with guests from across the political spectrum.
* ''Cato Events'' offers listeners a chance to stay up‐to‐date on a wide range of essential contemporary issues through presentations by leading national authorities.
* ''Cato Audio'' covers important policy debates in Washington.
* ''Cato Out Loud'', provides the most notable of Cato's print publications in an audio format.
* ''Free Thoughts'', hosted by Aaron Ross Powell and Trevor Burrus, is a weekly show about politics and liberty, featuring conversations with top scholars, philosophers, historians, economists, and public policy experts.
* ''Building Tomorrow'', hosted by Paul Matzko, explores the ways technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship are creating a freer, wealthier, and more peaceful world.
* ''Pop & Locke'', hosted by Landry Ayres and Natalie Dowzicky, explores the intersection of political ideas and pop culture.
* ''Portraits of Liberty'' investigates the lives and philosophies of thinkers throughout history who argued in favor of a freer world.
* ''The Pursuit'', hosted by Tess Terrible, Landry Ayres, and Natalie Dowzicky, is a podcast about government action and individual liberty.
* ''Liberty Chronicles'', hosted by Anthony Comegna, combines innovative libertarian thinking about history with specialist interviews, primary and secondary sources, and answers to listener questions.
* ''Excursions Into Libertarian Thought'', hosted by George H. Smith, explores the history of libertarian ideas.
* ''Classics of Liberty'', hosted by Caleb O.Brown, relives classic works and speeches of classical liberals
* ''The Human Progress Podcast'', hosted by Marian L. Tupy and Chelsea Follett, explores different aspects of progress and the challenges to progress.
Web projects
In addition to maintaining its own website in English and Spanish, Cato maintains websites focused on particular topics:
* "Downsizing the Federal Government" contains essays on the size of the U.S. federal government and recommendations for decreasing various programs.
* Libertarianism.org is a website focused on the theory and practice of
libertarianism
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
.
* ''Cato Unbound'', a web-only publication that features a monthly open debate among four people. The conversation begins with one lead essay, followed by three response essays by separate people. After that, all four participants can write as many responses and counter-responses as they want for the duration of that month.
* PoliceMisconduct.net contains reports and stories from Cato's National Police Misconduct Reporting Project and the National Police Misconduct News Feed.
*
Overlawyered is a law blog on the subject of tort reform run by author
Walter Olson
Walter K. Olson (born 1954) is an author and blogger who writes mostly about legal subjects, including tort reform. Olson is a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. Formerly, Olson was associated with t ...
.
* HumanProgress.org is an interactive data web project that catalogs increases in prosperity driven by the free market.
* "Public Schooling Battle Map" illustrates different moral conflicts that result from public schooling.
* UnlawfulShield.com is dedicated to abolishing
Qualified Immunity
In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statu ...
.
* FreedomInthe50States.org ranks states by policies that shape personal and economic freedom.
Social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
sponsored by Cato includes pages on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
,
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
,
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
,
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
,
LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
and
TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version ...
, as well as a presence on
Clubhouse
Clubhouse may refer to:
Locations
* The meetinghouse of:
** A club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal
** In the United States, a country club
** In the United Kingdom, a gentlemen's club
* A ...
,
Snapchat,
Goodreads
Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and read ...
,
Odysee
LBRY (), is a blockchain-based file-sharing and payment network that powers decentralized platforms, primarily social networks and video platforms. LBRY's creators also created Odysee, an open-source video-sharing website that uses the network ...
, and other fora.
Conferences
The Cato Institute hosts conferences throughout the year. Topics include monetary policy, the U.S. Constitution, poverty and social welfare, technology and privacy, financial regulation, and civic culture.
Speakers at past Cato Institute conferences have included Federal Reserve Chairmen
Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926) is an American economist who served as the 13th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. He works as a private adviser and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC. ...
and
Ben Bernanke
Ben Shalom Bernanke ( ; born December 13, 1953) is an American economist who served as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. After leaving the Fed, he was appointed a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution. Durin ...
, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman
Richard Clarida
Richard Harris Clarida (born May 18, 1957) is an American economist who served as the 21st Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve from 2018 to 2022. Clarida resigned his post on January 14th 2022 to return from public service leave to teach at Columbi ...
, International Monetary Fund Managing Director
Rodrigo de Rato
Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo (born 18 March 1949) is a Spanish politician who served in the Council of Ministers from 1996 to 2004. He also served as the ninth managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2004 to 2007 and the p ...
,
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
President
Václav Klaus
Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the secon ...
, and Avanti Financial Group Founder and CEO Caitlin Long.
Ideological relationships
Libertarianism and classical liberalism
Many Cato scholars have advocated support for civil liberties, liberal immigration policies,
drug liberalization,
and the repeal of
Don't Ask Don't Tell and laws restricting consensual sexual activity.
The Cato Institute officially resists being labeled as part of the conservative movement because "'conservative' smacks of an unwillingness to change, of a desire to preserve the status quo".
On the other hand, Cato has strong ties to the political philosophy of
classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is a political tradition
Political culture describes how culture impacts politics. Every political system is embedded in a particular political culture.
Definition
Gabriel Almond defines it as "the particular patt ...
. According to executive vice president
David Boaz
David Boaz (; born August 29, 1953, Mayfield, Kentucky) is the executive vice president of the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank.
He is the author of ''Libertarianism: A Primer'', published in 1997 by the Free Press and described ...
, libertarians are classical liberals who strongly emphasize the individual right to liberty. He argues that, as the term "liberalism" became increasingly associated with government intervention in the economy and social-welfare programs, some classical liberals abandoned the old term and began to call themselves “
libertarians
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's enc ...
”. Officially, Cato admits that the term “classical liberal” comes close to the mark of labeling its position, but fails to capture the contemporary vibrancy of the ideas of freedom. According to Cato's mission statement, the Jeffersonian philosophy that animates Cato's work has increasingly come to be called 'libertarianism' or 'market liberalism.' It combines an appreciation for entrepreneurship, the market process, and lower taxes with strict respect for civil liberties and skepticism about the benefits of both the welfare state and foreign military adventurism.
In 2006,
Markos Moulitsas
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (; born September 11, 1971), often known by his username and former military nickname "Kos" ( ), is an American blogger who is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos, a blog focusing on liberal and Democratic Party p ...
of the
Daily Kos
Daily Kos ( ) is a group blog and internet forum focused on the U.S. Democratic Party and liberal American politics. The site includes glossaries and other content. It is sometimes considered an example of "netroots" activism.
Daily Kos was f ...
proposed the term "
Libertarian Democrat" to describe his particular liberal position, suggesting that libertarians should be allies of the Democratic Party. Replying, Cato vice president for research
Brink Lindsey
Brink Lindsey is an American political writer, and Vice President and Director of the Open Society Project at the Niskanen Center. Previously he was the Cato Institute's vice president for research. From 1998 to 2004, he was director of Cato's ...
agreed that libertarians and liberals should view each other as natural ideological allies, and noted continuing differences between mainstream liberal views on economic policy and Cato's "
Jeffersonian philosophy".
Some Cato scholars disagree with conservatives on neo-conservative foreign policy, albeit that this has not always been uniform.
Objectivism
![John A](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/John_A._Allison_IV_of_the_Cato_Institute.jpg)
The relationship between Cato and the
Ayn Rand Institute
The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism, commonly known as the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank in Santa Ana, California, that promotes Objectivism, the philosophy developed by Ayn Rand ...
(ARI) improved with the nomination of Cato's new president
John A. Allison IV in 2012. He is a former ARI board member and is reported to be an "ardent devotee" of Rand who has promoted reading her books to colleges nationwide. In March 2015, Allison retired as president, remaining on the board, and was succeeded by Peter Goettler.
Cato positions on political issues and policies
The Cato Institute advocates policies that advance "individual
liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
,
limited government
In political philosophy, limited government is the concept of a government limited in power. It is a key concept in the history of liberalism.Amy Gutmann, "How Limited Is Liberal Government" in Liberalism Without Illusions: Essays on Liberal Th ...
,
free markets
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...
, and
peace
Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...
". They are libertarian in their policy positions, typically advocating diminished government intervention in domestic, social, and economic policies and decreased military and political intervention worldwide. Cato was cited by columnist
Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein (born May 10, 1984) is an American journalist, political analyst, ''New York Times'' columnist, and the host of ''The Ezra Klein Show'' podcast. He is a co-founder of '' Vox'' and formerly served as the website's editor-at-large. He h ...
as nonpartisan, saying that it is "the foremost advocate for small-government principles in American life" and it "advocates those principles when Democrats are in power, and when Republicans are in power";
and
Eric Lichtblau
Eric Lichtblau (born 1965) is an American journalist, reporting for ''The New York Times'' in the Washington bureau, as well as the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''Time'' magazine, ''The New Yorker'', and the CNN network's investigative news unit. He ha ...
called Cato "one of the country's most widely cited research organizations."
Nina Eastman reported in 1995 that "on any given day, House Majority Whip
Tom DeLay
Thomas Dale DeLay (; born April 8, 1947) is an American author and retired politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1985 until 2006. He was Republic ...
of Texas might be visiting for lunch. Or Cato staffers might be plotting strategy with House Majority Leader
Dick Armey
Richard Keith Armey (; born July 7, 1940) is an American economist and politician. He was a U.S. Representative from Texas's (1985–2003) and House Majority Leader (1995–2003). He was one of the engineers of the "Republican Revolution" of t ...
, another Texan, and his staff."
On domestic issues
Cato scholars have consistently called for the privatization of many government services and institutions, including
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
,
Social Security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
, the
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
, the
Transportation Security Administration
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within, and connecting to the United States. It was created ...
,
public schooling,
public transportation
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
systems, and
public broadcasting
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
. The institute opposes
minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...
laws, saying that they violate the freedom of contract and thus private property rights, and increase unemployment. It is opposed to expanding
overtime
Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:
*by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...
regulations, arguing that it will benefit some employees in the short term, while costing jobs or lowering wages of others, and have no meaningful long-term impact. It opposes
child labor
Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...
prohibitions. It opposes public sector
unions and supports
right-to-work law
In the context of labor law in the United States, the term "right-to-work laws" refers to state laws that prohibit union security agreements between employers and labor unions which require employees who are not union members to contribute to ...
s. It opposes
universal health care
Universal health care (also called universal health coverage, universal coverage, or universal care) is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized ar ...
, arguing that it is harmful to patients and an intrusion onto individual liberty. It is against
affirmative action. It has also called for total abolition of the
welfare state
A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
, and has argued that it should be replaced with reduced business regulations to create more jobs, and argues that private charities are fully capable of replacing it. Cato has also opposed antitrust laws.
Cato is an opponent of
campaign finance reform, arguing that government is the ultimate form of potential corruption and that such laws undermine democracy by undermining competitive elections. Cato also supports the repeal of the
Federal Election Campaign Act.
Cato has published strong criticisms of the
1998 settlement which many U.S. states signed with the
tobacco industry
The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies who are engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any ...
. In 2004, Cato scholar Daniel Griswold wrote in support of President George W. Bush's failed proposal to grant temporary work visas to otherwise undocumented laborers which would have granted limited residency for the purpose of employment in the U.S.
In 2006, the Cato Institute published a study proposing a Balanced Budget
Veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...
Amendment An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. The ...
to the
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
.
In 2003, Cato filed an
amicus brief
An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...
in support of the Supreme Court's decision in ''
Lawrence v. Texas
''Lawrence v. Texas'', 539 U.S. 558 (2003), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that most sanctions of criminal punishment for consensual, adult non- procreative sexual activity (commonly referred to as so ...
'', which struck down the remaining state laws that made private, non-commercial homosexual relations between consenting adults illegal. Cato cited the
14th Amendment, among other things, as the source of their support for the ruling. The amicus brief was cited in Justice Kennedy's majority opinion for the Court.
In 2006, Cato published a Policy Analysis criticising the
Federal Marriage Amendment
The Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), also referred to by proponents as the Marriage Protection Amendment, was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would legally define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. The FMA ...
as unnecessary, anti-federalist, and anti-democratic. The amendment would have changed the United States Constitution to prohibit
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
; the amendment failed in both houses of Congress.
A 2006 Cato report by
Radley Balko
Radley Prescott Balko (born April 19, 1975) is an American journalist, author, blogger, and speaker who writes about criminal justice, the drug war, and civil liberties. In 2022, he began publishing his work on Substack after being let go from ...
strongly criticized U.S. drug policy and the perceived growing militarization of U.S. law enforcement.
Criticism of corporate welfare
In 2004, the institute published a paper arguing in favor of "drug re-importation". Cato has published numerous studies criticizing what it calls "
corporate welfare
Corporate welfare is a phrase used to describe a government's bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment for corporations.
The definition of corporate welfare is sometimes restricted to direct government subsidie ...
", the practice of public officials funneling taxpayer money, usually via targeted budgetary spending, to politically connected corporate interests.
Cato president Ed Crane and
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...
executive director
Carl Pope co-wrote a 2002
op-ed piece in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' calling for the abandonment of the Republican energy bill, arguing that it had become little more than a gravy train for Washington, D.C., lobbyists. Again in 2005, Cato scholar Jerry Taylor teamed up with Daniel Becker of the Sierra Club to attack the Republican
Energy Bill as a give-away to corporate interests.
On copyright issues
A 2006 study criticized the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...
.
International
Cato scholars seek to promote a better understanding around the world of the benefits of market‐liberal policies and institutions, openness and engagement in the global economy, and a principled and restrained foreign policy. Cato argues those benefits include notable improvements in human well‐being as countries increase their levels of economic, civil, and personal freedoms. Hence, Cato's position urges the United States should thus engage the world, trade freely, and work with other countries on common concerns, but avoid trying to dominate the globe militarily.
Defense and foreign policy
Cato's
non-interventionist
Non-interventionism or non-intervention is a political philosophy or national foreign policy doctrine that opposes interference in the domestic politics and affairs of other countries but, in contrast to isolationism, is not necessarily opposed t ...
foreign policy views, and strong support for civil liberties, have frequently led Cato scholars to criticize those in power, both Republican and Democratic. Cato scholars opposed President
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
's 1991
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
operations (a position which caused the organization to lose nearly $1 million in funding),
[ President ]Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
's interventions in Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
and Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
, President George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...
, and President Barack Obama's 2011 military intervention in Libya
On 19 March 2011, a multi-state NATO-led coalition began a military intervention in Libya, to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, in response to events during the First Libyan Civil War. With ten votes in favour and five ...
. As a response to the September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
, Cato scholars supported the removal of al Qaeda and the Taliban regime from power, but are against an indefinite and open-ended military occupation of Afghanistan. Cato scholars criticized U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.
Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato's vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, criticized many of the arguments offered to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. One of the war's earliest critics, Carpenter wrote in January 2002: "Ousting Saddam would make Washington responsible for Iraq's political future and entangle the United States in an endless nation-building mission beset by intractable problems." Carpenter also predicted: "Most notably there is the issue posed by two persistent regional secession movements: the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south." But in 2002 Carpenter wrote, "the United States should not shrink from confronting al-Qaeda in its Pakistani lair," a position echoed in the institute's policy recommendations for the 108th Congress. Cato's director of foreign policy studies, Christopher Preble, argues in ''The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free'', that America's position as an unrivaled superpower tempts policymakers to constantly overreach and to redefine ever more broadly the "national interest".
Christopher Preble has said that the "scare campaign" to protect military spending from cuts under the Budget Control Act of 2011
The Budget Control Act of 2011 () is a federal statute enacted by the 112th United States Congress and signed into law by US President Barack Obama on August 2, 2011. The Act brought conclusion to the 2011 US debt-ceiling crisis.
The law inv ...
has backfired.
Cato's foreign and defense policies are guided by the view that the United States is relatively secure and so should engage the world, trade freely, and work with other countries on common concerns—but avoid trying to dominate it militarily. As a result, Cato advocates the United States should be an example of democracy and human rights, not their armed vindicator abroad, claiming it has a rich history, from George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
to Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
realists like George Kennan
George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histo ...
. Cato scholars aim to restore this view, with a principled and restrained foreign policy recommendation, to keep the nation out of most foreign conflicts and be cheaper, more ethical, and less destructive of civil liberties.
Global freedom
Cato's scholars seek to advance policies and support institutions in developing and developed countries that protect human rights and extend the range of personal choice. In particular, Cato's research explores the central role that freedom in its various dimensions—economic, civil, and personal—plays in human progress and in solving some of the world's most pressing problems, including global poverty. To this end Cato co-publishes the annual '' Human Freedom Index'' (2015–) with the Fraser Institute
The Fraser Institute is a libertarian-conservative Canadian public policy think tank and registered charity. The institute describes itself as independent and non-partisan. It is headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Calgary, T ...
and is the co-publisher with Fraser of the U.S. edition of the ''Economic Freedom of the World
''Economic Freedom of the World'' is an annual survey published by the Canadian think tank Fraser Institute.
; ; The survey attempts to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations. It has been used in peer-reviewed studies som ...
'' annual report (1996–).
Immigration
Cato argues that most Americans are immigrants or descended from immigrants who sought opportunity and freedom on American shores, and they believe that this continues today with immigrants continuing to become Americans, making the United States a wealthier, freer, and safer country. Cato's research indicates that the current US immigration system excludes most peaceful and healthy immigrants, and urges policymakers to expand and deregulate legal immigration. Further, Cato supports open borders
An open border is a border that enables free movement of people (and often of goods) between jurisdictions with no restrictions on movement and is lacking substantive border control. A border may be an open border due to intentional legislation ...
.
Trade policy
Cato advocates that policymakers must be constantly reminded of the benefits of free trade and the costs of protectionism, arguing free trade is the extension of free markets across political borders. It promotes the idea that enlarging markets to integrate more buyers, sellers, investors, and workers enables more refined specialization and economies of scales, which produce more wealth and higher living standards, and argues that Protectionism does the opposite. Cato's policy recommendations focus on congress and the administration pursuing policies that expand the freedom of Americans to participate in the international marketplace.
On environmental policy
Cato scholars have written about the issues of the environment, including global warming, environmental regulation, and energy policy. According to social scientists Riley Dunlap and Aaron McCright the Cato Institute is one of the "particularly crucial elements of the denial machine", that rejects global warming.
PolitiFact.com
PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' (then the ''St. Petersburg Times ...
and ''Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
'' have called Cato's work on global warming "false" and based on " data selection". A December 2003 Cato panel included Patrick Michaels, Robert Balling
Robert C. Balling, Jr. is a professor of geography at Arizona State University, and the former director of its Office of Climatology. His research interests include climatology, global climate change, and geographic information systems. and John Christy
John Raymond Christy is a climate scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) whose chief interests are satellite remote sensing of global climate and global climate change. He is best known, jointly with Roy Spencer, for the firs ...
. Michaels, Balling and Christy agreed that global warming is related at least some degree to human activity
Human behavior is the potential and expressed capacity ( mentally, physically, and socially) of human individuals or groups to respond to internal and external stimuli throughout their life. Kagan, Jerome, Marc H. Bornstein, and Richard M. ...
but that many scientists and the media have overstated the danger. The Cato Institute has also criticized political attempts to stop global warming as expensive and ineffective.
Cato scholars have been critical of the Bush administration's views on energy policy. In 2003, Cato scholars Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren said the Republican Energy Bill was "hundreds of pages of corporate welfare, symbolic gestures, empty promises, and pork-barrel projects". They also spoke out against the former president's calls for larger ethanol subsidies.
With regard to the "Takings Clause" of the United States Constitution and environmental protection, libertarians associated with Cato contended in 2003 that the Constitution is not adequate to guarantee the protection of private property rights.
In 2019, Cato closed its "Center for the Study of Science" (which E&E News characterized as "a program that for years sought to raise uncertainty about climate science") after its head Pat Michaels had left the institute over disagreements, along with his collaborator Ryan Maue, a meteorologist. By that time, the Cato Institute was also no longer affiliated with its former distinguished fellow Richard Lindzen, another denier of the scientific consensus on climate change.
Other commentaries on presidential administrations
Cato scholars were critical of George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
's Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
administration (2001–2009) on several issues, including education, and excessive government spending. On other issues, they supported Bush administration initiatives, most notably health care, Social Security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
, global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, tax policy
Tax policy includes the guidelines developed by a government regarding how taxes are imposed, in what amounts, and on whom. It has both microeconomic and macroeconomic aspects. The macroeconomic aspect concerns the overall quantity of taxes t ...
, and immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
.[Cato's link]
During the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Cato scholars criticized both major-party candidates, John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...
and Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
.
Cato has criticized President Obama's stances on policy issues such as fiscal stimulus
In economics, stimulus refers to attempts to use monetary policy or fiscal policy (or stabilization policy in general) to stimulate the economy. Stimulus can also refer to monetary policies such as lowering interest rates and quantitative easi ...
, healthcare reform
Health care reform is for the most part governmental policy that affects health care delivery in a given place. Health care reform typically attempts to:
* Broaden the population that receives health care coverage through either public sector insur ...
, foreign policy
A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
, and drug-related matters, while supporting his stance on the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell
"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service of non-heterosexual people, instituted during the Clinton administration. The policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on Decemb ...
and the DREAM Act
The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act, is a United States legislative proposal to grant temporary conditional residency, with the right to work, to illegal immigrants who entered the United States a ...
.
Cato opposed Executive Order 13769
Executive Order 13769, titled Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, labeled the "Muslim ban" by critics, or commonly referred to as the Trump travel ban, was an executive order by US President Donald Trump ...
, was enacted in January 2017, which decreased the number of refugees admitted into the United States and suspended entry to individuals whose countries do not meet adjudication standards under U.S. immigration law.
Funding, tax status, and corporate structure
The Cato Institute is classified as a 501(c)
A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the Law of the United States#Federal law, federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exe ...
(3) organization under U.S. Internal Revenue Code
The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), formally the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is the domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 26 ...
. For revenue, the institute is largely dependent on private contributions and does not receive government funding. The Cato Institute reported fiscal year 2015 revenue of $37.3 million and expenses of $29.4 million. According to the organization's annual report, $32.1 million came from individual donors, $2.9 million came from foundations, $1.2 million came from program revenue and other income, and $1 million came from corporations.[
Sponsors of Cato have included FedEx, ]Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
, CME Group
CME Group Inc. (Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, New York Mercantile Exchange, The Commodity Exchange) is an American global markets company. It is the world's largest financial derivatives exchange, and trades in asset class ...
and Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market IP, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon, is an upscale American multinational supermarket chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from hydrogenated fats and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. A US ...
. ''The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'' reported support for Cato from the tobacco industry in a 2012 story.
Funding details
Funding details as of FYE March 2020:
Net assets as of FYE March 2020: $81,391,000.
Shareholder dispute and departure of Ed Crane
In 2011, there were to be four shareholders of the Cato Institute. They were Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
and David Koch
David Hamilton Koch ( ; May 3, 1940 – August 23, 2019) was an American businessman, political activist, philanthropist, and chemical engineer. In 1970, he joined the family business: Koch Industries, the second largest privately held c ...
, Ed Crane, and William A. Niskanen. Niskanen died in October 2011. In March 2012, a dispute broke out over the ownership of Niskanen's shares. Charles and David Koch filed suit in Kansas, seeking to void his shareholder seat. The Kochs argued that Niskanen's shares should first be offered to the board of the institute, and then to the remaining shareholders. Crane contended that Niskanen's share belonged to his widow, Kathryn Washburn, and that the move by the Kochs was an attempt to turn Cato into "some sort of auxiliary for the G.O.P ... It's detrimental to Cato, it's detrimental to Koch Industries, it's detrimental to the libertarian movement." Those who supported Cato's existing management rallied around the "Save Cato" banner, while those who supported the Koch brothers, called "For a Better Cato".
In June 2012, Cato announced an agreement in principle
In law, an agreement in principle is a stepping stone to a contract. Such agreements with regard to the principle are usually considered fair and equitable. Even if not all details are known, an ''agreement in principle'' may, for example, outline ...
to settle the dispute by changing the institute's governing structure. Under the agreement, a board replaced the shareholders and Crane, who at the time was also chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
, retired. Former BB&T
BB&T Corporation (previously known as the Branch Banking and Trust Company) was one of the largest banking and financial services firms in the United States, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2019, BB&T announced its intentions to merge ...
bank CEO John A. Allison IV replaced him. The Koch brothers
The Koch family ( ) is an American family engaged in business, best known for their political activities and their control of Koch Industries, the 2nd largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2019 revenues of $115 billion). ...
agreed to drop two lawsuits.
In 2018, several former Cato employees alleged longtime sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
by Crane, going back to the 1990s and continuing until his departure in 2012. ''Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'' reported that he settled one such claim in 2012. Crane denied the allegations.
Recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences at Cato
The following recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...
have worked with Cato:
* Gary S. Becker
Gary Stanley Becker (; December 2, 1930 – May 3, 2014) was an American economist who received the 1992 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, and was a leader of ...
* James M. Buchanan
James McGill Buchanan Jr. (; October 3, 1919 – January 9, 2013) was an American economist known for his work on public choice theory originally outlined in his most famous work co-authored with Gordon Tullock in 1962, ''The Calculus of Consen ...
* Ronald Coase
Ronald Harry Coase (; 29 December 1910 – 2 September 2013) was a British economist and author. Coase received a bachelor of commerce degree (1932) and a PhD from the London School of Economics, where he was a member of the faculty until 1951. ...
* Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...
* Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
* Robert Mundell
Robert Alexander Mundell (October 24, 1932 – April 4, 2021) was a Canadian economist. He was a professor of economics at Columbia University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences i ...
* Douglass C. North
* Edward C. Prescott
Edward Christian Prescott (December 26, 1940 – November 6, 2022) was an American economist. He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2004, sharing the award with Finn E. Kydland, "for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: ...
* Thomas C. Schelling
Thomas Crombie Schelling (April 14, 1921 – December 13, 2016) was an American economist and professor of foreign policy, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland, Colle ...
* Vernon L. Smith
* George J. Stigler
George Joseph Stigler (; January 17, 1911 – December 1, 1991) was an American economist. He was the 1982 laureate in Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and is considered a key leader of the Chicago school of economics.
Early life and e ...
* Richard H. Thaler
Milton Friedman Prize
Since 2002, the Cato Institute has awarded the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty every two years to "an individual who has made a significant contribution to advancing human freedom." The prize comes with a cash award of US$250,000.
Board of directors
As of 2020:
* John A. Allison IV, former president and CEO, Cato Institute; retired chairman and CEO, BB&T
BB&T Corporation (previously known as the Branch Banking and Trust Company) was one of the largest banking and financial services firms in the United States, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2019, BB&T announced its intentions to merge ...
* Baron Bond, executive vice president, The Foundation Group LLC
* Rebecca Dunn, Trustee, DUNN Foundation
* Robert Gelfond, CEO and founder, MQS Management
* Peter N. Goettler, president and CEO, Cato Institute; former managing director, Barclays Capital
Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.
Barclays traces ...
* David C. Humphreys, president & CEO, TAMKO Building Products, Inc.
* James M. Kilts
James M. Kilts was a chief executive officer of The Gillette Company. He negotiated the sale of the company to Procter & Gamble for US$57 billion. Press investigators estimate that he stood to gain more than $165 million personally in the purchase. ...
, partner, Centerview Capital Holdings; former CEO, The Gillette Company
Gillette is an American brand of safety razors and other personal care products including shaving supplies, owned by the multi-national corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G).
Based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, it was owned by The Gil ...
* James M. Lapeyre, Jr., president, Laitram, LLC
* Ken Levy, Levy Family Fund
* Robert A. Levy
Robert A. Levy (born 1941) is the chairman of the American libertarian Cato Institute as well as a director of the Institute of Justice, and the organizer and financier behind ''District of Columbia v. Heller'', as well as Heller's co-counsel, ...
, chairman, Cato Institute
* Nancy Pfotenhauer
Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer (born 1963 as Nancy Wadley) is the president of MediaSpeak Strategies. She has been a Senior Policy Advisor and National Spokesperson with the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign and political commentator on Fox News ...
, President and CEO, MediaSpeak Strategies
* Lewis E. Randall, former director, E-Trade Financial Corporation
* Howard Rich
Howard S. Rich, also known as Howie Rich (born 1940) is a real estate investor who is notable for funding libertarian-oriented political initiatives such as term limits, school choice, parental rights regarding education, limited government ...
, chairman, U.S. Term Limits
U.S. Term Limits is a non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to enacting term limits for elected officials at every level of government in the United States. It was founded in 1992, and claims to have helped facilitate more ...
* Nestor R. Weigand, Jr., chairman and CEO, JP Weigand & Sons, Inc.
* Jeffrey S. Yass, managing director, Susquehana International Group, LLP
* Fred Young, former owner, Young Radiator Company
Notable Cato scholars
Notable scholars associated with Cato include the following:
Policy scholars
* Swaminathan Aiyar, research fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity
* Doug Bandow
Douglas Bandow (born April 15, 1957) is an American political writer working as a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. In 2005, Bandow was forced to resign from the Cato Institute after it was revealed that for over ten years, he accepted payment ...
, senior fellow
* David Boaz
David Boaz (; born August 29, 1953, Mayfield, Kentucky) is the executive vice president of the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank.
He is the author of ''Libertarianism: A Primer'', published in 1997 by the Free Press and described ...
, executive vice president
* Mark A. Calabria, director of financial regulation studies
* Edward H. Crane, founder and president emeritus
* Steve H. Hanke, senior fellow and director, Troubled Currencies Project
* Gene Healy
Gene Healy (born November 16, 1970) is an American political pundit, journalist and editor. He serves as Vice President at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, as well as a contributing editor to ''Liberty'' magazine.
Education
Healy h ...
, vice president
* John A. Allison
John A. Allison IV (born August 14, 1948) is an American businessman and the former CEO and president of the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. Allison held a number of leadership positions in BB&T Corp. from 1987 until 2010 when he retired. He n ...
, former president and CEO
* Nat Hentoff
Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for ''The Village Voice'' from 1958 to 2009. Fol ...
, senior fellow
* Jeffrey A. Miron
Jeffrey Alan "Jeff" Miron (; born January 31, 1957) is an American economist. He served as the chairman of the Department of Economics at Boston University from 1992 to 1998, and currently teaches at Harvard University, serving as a Senior Lectur ...
, senior fellow
* John Mueller
John E. Mueller (born June 21, 1937) is an American political scientist in the field of international relations as well as a scholar of the history of dance. He is recognized for his ideas concerning "the banality of ethnic war" and the theory t ...
, senior fellow
* William A. Niskanen, chairman and distinguished senior economist
* Johan Norberg
Johan Norberg (; born 27 August 1973) is a Swedish author and historian of ideas, devoted to promoting economic globalization and what he describes as classical liberal positions. He is arguably most known as the author of '' In Defense of Global ...
, senior fellow
* Alex Nowrasteh, immigration policy analyst
* Walter Olson
Walter K. Olson (born 1954) is an author and blogger who writes mostly about legal subjects, including tort reform. Olson is a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. Formerly, Olson was associated with t ...
, senior fellow
* Randal O'Toole
Randal O'Toole (born 1952) is an American public policy analyst. The majority of O'Toole's work has focused on public lands, land-use regulation, and transportation, particularly light rail. He frequently criticized proposals for passenger rail ...
, senior fellow
* Tom G. Palmer, senior fellow and director of Cato University
* Roger Pilon
Roger Pilon (born November 28, 1942) is Vice President for Legal Affairs for the Cato Institute, and an American libertarian legal theorist. In particular, he has developed a libertarian version of the rights theory of his teacher, noted philosoph ...
, vice president for legal affairs
* José Piñera
José Piñera Echenique (born October 6, 1948) is a Chilean economist, one of the famous Chicago Boys, who served as minister of Labor and Social Security, and of Mining, in the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. He is the architect of Ch ...
, co-chairman, Project on Social Security Choice
* William Poole
William Poole (July 24, 1821 – March 8, 1855), also known as Bill the Butcher, was the leader of the Washington Street Gang, which later became known as the Bowery Boys gang. He was a local leader of the Know Nothing political movement ...
, senior fellow
* Alan Reynolds, senior fellow
* Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, senior fellow in constitutional studies
* Julian Sanchez, senior fellow
* Cathy Young
Catherine Alicia Young (born Yekaterina Jung russian: Екатерина Юнг; born February 10, 1963) is a Russian-born American journalist. Young is primarily known for her writing about feminism and other cultural issues, as well as about R ...
, cultural studies fellow
Adjunct scholars
* Patrick Basham (Democracy Institute
The Democracy Institute is a think tank based in Washington, DC, and London. It was founded in 2006.Democracy InstituteAbout Us, accessed 8 August 2010 According to the University of Bath's Tobacco Tactics project the institute has taken part in ...
)
* David E. Bernstein (George Mason University School of Law
The Antonin Scalia Law School (previously George Mason University School of Law) is the law school of George Mason University, a public research university in Virginia. It is located in Arlington, Virginia, roughly west of Washington, D.C., a ...
)
* Donald J. Boudreaux (George Mason University
George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
)
* Robert L. Bradley, Jr. (Institute for Energy Research
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that, according to itself, conducts research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. IER maintains ...
)
* Bryan Caplan
Bryan Douglas Caplan (born April 8, 1971) is an American economist and author. Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University, research fellow at the Mercatus Center, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and former contributor ...
(George Mason University
George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
)
* John H. Cochrane (University of Chicago Booth School of Business
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth or Booth) is the graduate business school of the University of Chicago. Founded in 1898, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and is associated with 10 N ...
)
* Robert Corn-Revere
Robert L. "Bob" Corn-Revere (born Robert L. Corn, October 15, 1954) is an American First Amendment lawyer. Corn-Revere is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Washington, D.C. and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He is regularly l ...
(Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is an American business and litigation law firm. Founded in 1944, the firm is a limited liability partnership and employs over 500 lawyers. Davis Wright Tremaine is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and has offices ...
)
* Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen (; born January 21, 1962) is an American economist, columnist and blogger. He is a professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department. He hosts the economics blog ''Marginal R ...
(George Mason University
George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
)
* Kevin Dowd (University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
)
* Richard A. Epstein
Richard Allen Epstein (born April 17, 1943) is an American legal scholar known for his writings on torts, contracts, property rights, law and economics, classical liberalism, and libertarianism. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at ...
(New York University School of Law
New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...
)
* Alex Epstein (Center for Industrial Progress)
* Enrique Ghersi
Enrique Ghersi (born 1961) is a Peruvian lawyer, professor and free market intellectual.Owen Lippert, Michael Walker, ''The Underground Economy: Global Evidence of Its Size and Impact'', Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Fraser Institute, p. xvi ...
(University of Lima
The University of Lima ( es, Universidad de Lima) is a private nonprofit university in Lima, Peru.
It was founded in 1962 and it is considered one of the most prestigious and remembered universities in Peru. The decision to create the Universi ...
)
* Robert Higgs
Robert Higgs (born 1 February 1944) is an American economic historian and economist combining material from Public Choice, the New institutional economics, and the Austrian school of economics; and describes himself as a " libertarian anarchis ...
(The Independent Institute
The Independent Institute is an American libertarian think tank based in Oakland, California. Founded in 1986 by David J. Theroux, the institute focuses on political, social, economic, legal, environmental, and foreign policy issues. It has mor ...
)
* Daniel B. Klein
Daniel Bruce Klein (born January 16, 1962) is an American professor of economics at George Mason University and an Associate Fellow of the Swedish Ratio Institute. Much of his research examines the works of Adam Smith, public policy questions, ...
(George Mason University
George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
)
* Arnold Kling
Arnold Kling (born 1954) is an American economist, scholar, and blogger known for his writings on EconLog, an economics blog, along with Bryan Caplan and David R. Henderson. Kling also has his own blog, askblog, which carries the motto: "takin ...
(George Mason University
George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
)
* Chandran Kukathas
Chandran Kukathas (born 12 September 1957) is a Malaysian-born Australian political theorist and the author of several books. Until 2019 he was Head of the Department of Government at the London School of Economics, where he held a Chair in Pol ...
(London School of Economics
, mottoeng = To understand the causes of things
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £240.8 million (2021)
, budget = £391.1 millio ...
)
* Loren Lomasky
Loren E. Lomasky is an American philosopher, formerly the Cory Professor of Political Philosophy, Policy and Law at the University of Virginia.
Biography
Lomasky earned his PhD from the University of Connecticut, and has previously taught at Bo ...
(University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
)
* Jonathan R. Macey
Jonathan R. Macey (born 1955) is an American legal scholar who serves as the Sam Harris Professor of Corporate Law, Corporate Finance and Securities Law at Yale Law School.
Biography
Macey earned his B.A. (cum laude) from Harvard University in 1 ...
(Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
)
* Tibor R. Machan (Auburn University
Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...
and Chapman University, Argyros School of Business and Economics
Chapman University is a private university, private research university in Orange, California. It encompasses ten schools and colleges, including Fowler School of Engineering, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Fowler School of Law, and Sch ...
)
* Michael Munger
Michael Curtis Munger (; born September 23, 1958)[News & Observer profile](_blank)
...
(Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
)
* David G. Post (Temple University Beasley School of Law
The Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law is the law school of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1895 and enrolls about 530 students.
Student body
Admission for fall 2019 entering class was highly compe ...
)
* Alvin Rabushka (Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...
)
* Harvey Silverglate
Harvey Allen Silverglate (born May 10, 1942) is an attorney, journalist, writer, and co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).
Silverglate was a member of the board of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civ ...
(Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, is a non-profit civil liberties group founded in 1999 with the aim of protecting free speech rights on college campus ...
)
* Ilya Somin
Ilya Somin (born 1973) is a law professor at George Mason University, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a blogger for the Volokh Conspiracy, and a former co-editor of the '' Supreme Court Economic Review'' (2006–2013). His research focu ...
(George Mason University School of Law
The Antonin Scalia Law School (previously George Mason University School of Law) is the law school of George Mason University, a public research university in Virginia. It is located in Arlington, Virginia, roughly west of Washington, D.C., a ...
)
* Richard L. Stroup (The Independent Institute
The Independent Institute is an American libertarian think tank based in Oakland, California. Founded in 1986 by David J. Theroux, the institute focuses on political, social, economic, legal, environmental, and foreign policy issues. It has mor ...
)
* James Tooley (Newcastle University
Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...
)
* Lawrence H. White (George Mason University
George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
)
* Glen Whitman
Douglas Glen Whitman is an American television writer and a professor of economics.
Academic career
Whitman is a professor of economics at California State University, Northridge, where he has been on the faculty since 2000. He has also serve ...
(Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
)
* Walter E. Williams
Walter Edward Williams (March 31, 1936December 1, 2020) was an American economist, commentator, and academic. Williams was the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, as well as a syndicated columnist ...
(George Mason University
George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
)
* Leland B. Yeager
Leland Bennett Yeager (; October 4, 1924 – April 23, 2018) was an American economist dealing with monetary policy and international trade.
Biography
Yeager graduated from Oberlin College in 1948 with an A.B. and was granted an M.A. from Columb ...
(Auburn University
Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...
and University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
)
Fellows
* Radley Balko
Radley Prescott Balko (born April 19, 1975) is an American journalist, author, blogger, and speaker who writes about criminal justice, the drug war, and civil liberties. In 2022, he began publishing his work on Substack after being let go from ...
, media fellow
* Randy E. Barnett, senior fellow
* James M. Buchanan
James McGill Buchanan Jr. (; October 3, 1919 – January 9, 2013) was an American economist known for his work on public choice theory originally outlined in his most famous work co-authored with Gordon Tullock in 1962, ''The Calculus of Consen ...
(1919–2013)
* Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Константи́нович Буко́вский; 30 December 1942 – 27 October 2019) was a Russian-born British human rights activist and writer. From the late 195 ...
, senior fellow
* F. A. Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, Jurisprudence, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical lib ...
(1899–1992)
* Penn Jillette
Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American magician, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller as half of the team Penn & Teller. The duo has been featured ...
, H.L. Mencken research fellow
* Václav Klaus
Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the secon ...
, distinguished senior fellow
* Deepak Lal
Deepak Kumar Lal (1940 – 30 April 2020) was an Indian-born British author, professor and consultant focused on the subject of liberal economics. Best known for his 1983 book, "The Poverty of Development Economics", Lal was also known for bu ...
, senior fellow
* Christopher Layne, visiting fellow in foreign policy studies
* Jeffrey Milyo
Jeffrey Dennis Milyo is an American economist and professor of economics at the University of Missouri. He is also a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. One of his best-known studies is a 2005 one that he co-authored with Timothy Groseclose exam ...
, senior fellow
* P. J. O'Rourke, H.L. Mencken research fellow
* Jim Powell, senior fellow
* Richard W. Rahn, senior fellow
* George Selgin
George Selgin (; born 1957) is an American economist. He is Senior Fellow and Director Emeritus of the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, where he is editor-in-chief of the center's blog, ''Alt-M'', Professor Emeritu ...
, senior fellow
* Vernon L. Smith, senior fellow
* Teller, H.L. Mencken research fellow
Affiliations
The Cato Institute is an associate member of the State Policy Network
The State Policy Network (SPN) is a nonprofit organization that serves as a network for conservative and libertarian think tanks focusing on state-level policy in the United States. The network serves as a public policy clearinghouse and advises ...
, a U.S. national network of free-market oriented think tanks.
Rankings
According to the ''2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report'' (Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program
The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) was a non-profit program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that operated from 1989 to 2021. TTCSP was originally established at the Foreign Policy Research Instit ...
, University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
), Cato is number 27 in the "Top Think Tanks Worldwide" and number 13 in the "Top Think Tanks in the United States". Other "Top Think Tank" rankings include # 13 (of 85) in Defense and National Security, #5 (of 80) in Domestic Economic Policy, #4 (of 55) in Education Policy, #17 (of 85) in Foreign Policy and International Affairs, #8 (of 30) in Domestic Health Policy, #14 (of 25) in Global Health Policy, #18 (of 80) in International Development, #14 (of 50) in International Economic Policy, #8 (of 50) in Social Policy, #8 (of 75) for Best Advocacy Campaign, #17 (of 60) for Best Think Tank Network, #3 (of 60) for best Use of Social Networks, #9 (of 50) for Best External Relations/Public Engagement Program, #2 (of 40) for Best Use of the Internet, #12 (of 40) for Best Use of Media, #5 (of 30) for Most Innovative Policy Ideas/Proposals, #11 (of 70) for the Most Significant Impact on Public Policy, and #9 (of 60) for Outstanding Policy-Oriented Public Programs. Cato also topped the 2014 list of the budget-adjusted ranking of international development think tanks.
See also
* American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. ...
* Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...
* Foundation for Economic Education
The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is an American conservative, libertarian economic think tank. Founded in 1948 in New York City, FEE is now headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a member of the State Policy Network.
FEE offers ...
* Fraser Institute
The Fraser Institute is a libertarian-conservative Canadian public policy think tank and registered charity. The institute describes itself as independent and non-partisan. It is headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Calgary, T ...
* The Heartland Institute
The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian public policy think tank known for its rejection of both the scientific consensus on climate change and the negative health impacts of smoking.
Founded in 1984, it worked wit ...
* Reason Foundation
The Reason Foundation is an American libertarian think tank that was founded in 1978. The foundation publishes the magazine ''Reason''. Based in Los Angeles, California, it is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. According to its web site, the f ...
Notes
References
External links
Cato Institute
official website
Organizational Profile
– National Center for Charitable Statistics
The National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) is a clearing house for information about the nonprofit sector of the U.S. economy. The National Center for Charitable Statistics builds national, state, and regional databases and develops sta ...
(Urban Institute
The Urban Institute is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank that carries out economic and social policy research to "open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions". The institute receives funding from government contracts, foundations and pr ...
)
*
EDIRC listing
(provided by RePEc)
{{Authority control
Climate change denial
Libertarian organizations based in the United States
Libertarian think tanks
Non-interventionism
Organizations established in 1974
Political and economic think tanks in the United States
Public policy research
Conservative organizations in the United States