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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 more than 140 research fellows. The institute was originally established in San Francisco, was re-located in 1989 to Oakland, and since 2006 has had an office 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, Na ...
The institute is organized into seven centers addressing a range of issues. 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 institute is ranked number 42 (of 110) in the "Top Think Tanks in the United States".


Publications and programs

Since 1996, the institute has published the quarterly scholarly journal ''
The Independent Review ''The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering political economy and the critical analysis of government policy. It is published by the Independent Institute, a conservative li ...
'', whose founding editor and editor at large is the economist and historian
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 ...
, and co-editors are Christopher Coyne,
Michael Munger Michael Curtis Munger (; born September 23, 1958)News & Observer profile
...
, and Robert Whaples. The institute conducts various conference programs. The institute's Independent Policy Forum has included seminars by individuals including
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 ...
and
Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and es ...
. Its program in criminal justice sponsored a series of televised debates on PBS-TV, ''Stopping Violent Crime: New Directions for Reduction and Prevention'', moderated by
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher l ...
law professor Arthur R. Miller, former
U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...
Richard Thornburgh, federal judge
David Sentelle David Bryan Sentelle (born February 12, 1943) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Early life, family and education David Sentelle was born in Canton, North Carolina. ...
, civil libertarian writer
Wendy Kaminer Wendy Kaminer (born December 28, 1949) is an American lawyer and writer. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including ''A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality'', about the conflict between egalitarian and protect ...
, and others. In 2006, the institute opened an office in Washington and expanded its media program, including a weekly column by Senior Fellow
Álvaro Vargas Llosa Álvaro Vargas Llosa (born 18 March 1966) is a Peruvian-Spanish writer and political commentator and public speaker on international affairs. He is also the writer and presenter of a documentary series for National Geographic Channel on contempo ...
in the ''Washington Post.'' In 2006 the institute released an ''Open Letter on Immigration''.


Policy areas

The institute's stated mission is "to boldly advance peaceful, prosperous, and free societies, grounded in a commitment to human worth and dignity." The institute maintains MyGovCost.org, which focuses on the critical analysis of fiscal policy and government waste. It includes a calculator described as enabling Americans to estimate their lifetime federal tax liability and the hypothetical alternative investment return. Independent Institute scholars have criticized the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on economic, legal, ethical, and privacy grounds. Independent Institute scholars have leveled several criticisms of Medicare. Senior Fellow John R. Graham has lamented the widespread indifference to the Medicare Trustees report's warnings of Medicare's mounting fiscal problems. He has, however, defended
Medicare Advantage Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C, MA) is a capitated program for providing Medicare benefits in the United States. Under Part C, Medicare pays a private-sector health insurer a fixed payment. The insurer then pays for the health care expense ...
for giving seniors more choices than traditional Medicare. John C. Goodman has argued that healthcare inflation in the United States began with the creation of Medicare. To help curb Medicare spending, Graham has proposed incentivizing enrollees to seek less expensive medical treatment abroad. Craig Eyermann has also proposed giving Medicare enrollees a direct economic stake in lowering the costs. Goodman has called for the privatization of Medicare. The Independent Institute has criticized the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...
, for what it sees as over-regulation as a result of political and bureaucratic incentives. Independent's website FDAReview.org cites numerous scholarly studies by academic economists that question the agency's safety, effectiveness, and incentives. Senior Fellow Robert Higgs has argued that the FDA's regulation of healthcare products is “hazardous to our health”. Senior Fellow
Alexander Tabarrok Alexander Taghi Tabarrok (born November 11, 1966) is a Canadian-American economist. With Tyler Cowen, he co-authors the economics blog ''Marginal Revolution''. Tabarrok and Cowen have also ventured into online education with ''Marginal Revolutio ...
has questioned the need for the FDA's pre-approval requirements for pharmaceuticals on the grounds that doctors successfully prescribe many drugs for off-label usage.


Civil liberties and human rights

Independent Institute fellows have written on a variety of topics related to civil liberties and human rights. Historian Jonathan Bean anthologized and annotated numerous historical speeches, letters, and articles that show individualist perspectives that animated the American civil-rights era in his book ''Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader''. Since 2012, Bean has served on the Illinois State Advisory Committee, a federally appointed panel that advises the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and his experience led him to claim that the mainstream civil rights community was out of touch with the public's civil rights concerns. Second Amendment legal scholar
Stephen Halbrook Stephen P. Halbrook (born 12 September 1947) is a senior fellow at the Independent Institute and an author and lawyer known for his litigation on cases involving laws pertaining to firearms. He has written extensively about the original meanings ...
, who has won three firearms cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, has argued in several Independent Institute books and articles that civil liberties are more secure when individuals have legal access to firearms. His 2003 book, ''The Founders’ Second Amendment'', traced the U.S. Constitution's guarantees of “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” back to the American colonists’ fears of British oppression. His 2013 book, '' Gun Control in the Third Reich'', examined firearm registration and restrictions in pre-World War II Germany. Economists Christopher Coyne and Abigail Hall have argued that interventionist militarism can lead to a “boomerang effect,” setting in motion political, institutional and ideological forces that contribute to the suppression of civil liberties in the aggressive country. Independent has also criticized major aspects of the criminal justice system as antagonistic toward civil liberties. Senior Fellow
Bruce L. Benson Bruce L. Benson (born March 18, 1949) is an American academic economist who is recognized as an authority on law and economics and a major exponent of anarcho-capitalist legal theory. He is chair of the department of economics, DeVoe L. Moore Pr ...
argued in ''
The Enterprise of Law Bruce L. Benson (born March 18, 1949) is an American academic economist who is recognized as an authority on law and economics and a major exponent of anarcho-capitalist legal theory. He is chair of the department of economics, DeVoe L. Moore Pr ...
'' that before the British crown took over the courts, the legal system focused on restitution for victims, rather than punishment, corrections, and deterrence. In ''The Power of Habeas Corpus in America'', winner of a 2013 PROSE Award in the category of Law and Legal Studies, Research Fellow
Anthony Gregory Anthony Gregory (born January 3, 1981) is an American historian and author. He has published two books on civil liberties in the United States and in the English legal tradition. Prior to becoming an academic historian, Gregory published hundreds ...
put forth a revisionist view of the writ of ''
habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
'', arguing that rather than always promoting the cause of civil liberties, the legal idea has served “both as an engine and a curb on state power.”


Criticism of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan

In the aftermath of September 11 attacks, the Independent Institute was an early advocate of using privateers, (rather than a military invasion of Afghanistan) to bring the co-conspirators of the terrorist attacks to justice under international law, as authorized in Article I, Section 8, clause 11 of the United States Constitution.


Opposition to the Iraq War

The Independent Institute promotes a U.S. foreign policy of free trade and non-interventionism, and this perspective was apparent in a host of publications and events it sponsored during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Even before the United States led the 2003 airstrikes on Iraq, the Independent Institute's fellows and speakers voiced opposition to a U.S.-Iraq War. That opposition continued for the duration of the conflict. In a Reason magazine symposium marking the 10th anniversary of war's inception, Research Fellow Anthony Gregory called the Iraq war “the worst U.S. government project in my lifetime,” and Senior Fellow Robert Higgs said the sizable political and material benefits that accrued to the war's architects demonstrate that “Crime pays.” Senior Fellow
Ivan Eland Ivan Eland (; born February 23, 1958) is an American defense analyst and writer. He is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute. Eland's writings generally propose libertarian and non-interventio ...
, who directs Independent's Center on Peace and Liberty, wrote extensively on the Iraq war and told an audience at the 2013 CPAC conference that the war helped illustrate why the America's Founders warned against foreign entanglements and were suspicious of standing armies. He has also argued that conservatives who seek a more limited government should celebrate Calvin Coolidge instead of the more interventionist Ronald Reagan. Eland has argued that the best strategy for minimizing sectarian strife in post-Saddam Iraq is for Iraqis to peacefully partition their country along ethnic and religious lines, a view once also supported by then-Senator Joe Biden and former Ambassador
Peter Galbraith Peter Woodard Galbraith (born December 31, 1950) is an American author, academic, commentator, politician, policy advisor, and former diplomat. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he helped uncover Saddam Hussein's gassing of the Kurds. From 1993 ...
.


Climate change

The Independent Institute has published works by atmospheric physicist and professor emeritus of environmental science
Fred Singer Siegfried Fred Singer (September 27, 1924 – April 6, 2020) was an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia, trained as an atmospheric physicist. He was known for rejecti ...
, who is an advocate of climate change attribution denial and impact denial. The works include ''Hot Talk, Cold Science: Climate Change's Unfinished Debate'' in 1999. It was co-authored with Frederick Seitz, another research fellow of the institute. The book included Singer's 2004 essay, "The Scientific Case against the Global Climate Treaty". The institute also published a 2003 policy report, "New Perspectives in Climate Change: What the EPA Isn't Telling Us", also by Singer. That report criticized the EPA's 2001 Climate Action Report.


Funding

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, the institute had total revenue of $2,775,869. From 2007 to 2011 the institute took in $12,249,065 from gifts, grants, contributions, and membership fees; and $536,747 in gross income from interest, dividends, payments received on securities loans, rents, royalties, and income from similar sources.


Microsoft funding controversy

On June 2, 1999, the institute sponsored a full-page advertisement titled ''Open Letter on Antitrust Protectionism'' in the ''Washington Post'' and the ''New York Times''. The ads were signed by 240 economists and claimed "headline-grabbing cases against Microsoft, Intel, Cisco Systems,
Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...
and MasterCard, along with a flurry of merger investigations now underway, would appear to demonstrate the need for a vigorously enforced
antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...
policy that will create checks and balances to eliminate consumer harm. However, consumers did not ask for these antitrust actions—rival business firms did." In September 1999, a controversy arose when ''New York Times'' reporter
Joel Brinkley Joel Graham Brinkley (July 22, 1952 – March 11, 2014) was an American syndicated columnist. He taught in the journalism program at Stanford University from 2006 until 2013, after a 23-year career with ''The New York Times''. He won the Pulitzer ...
stated that the advertisements had been paid for by Microsoft. Based on internal Independent Institute documents "provided to the New York Times by a Microsoft adversary associated with the computer industry who refused to be further identified", Brinkley wrote that Microsoft "has secretly served as the institute's largest outside financial benefactor in the last year." Independent Institute internal documents showed that Microsoft had contributed $203,217 in 1999, making it the single largest contributor. Brinkley calculated that Microsoft's contribution amounted to approximately 20% of the funds in 1999 from external sources, excluding $304,725 contributed by Theroux. The day after Brinkley's article appeared, Theroux stated that "our final year-end records do not agree with the numbers he had been provided by his source" and claimed that at the media conference he had stated that the Microsoft funding amounted to 7%. "It now appears the final figure is about 8%, a statistically insignificant difference, and far less than the 20% figure Mr. Brinkley claimed in his article," said Theroux. In June 2000, '' Wall Street Journal'' staff reporters Glenn Simpson and Ted Bridis revealed that Oracle had hired Investigative Group International, as well as Chlopak, Leonard,
Schechter Schachter, Schächter or Schechter (from Yiddish shochet, 'to slaughter'. Hebrew:שכטר also Shechter) is a Yiddish and German surname. Notable people with the surname include: Schachter, Schächter * Daniel Schacter, psychologist, neuroscien ...
& Associates, a Washington, D.C., public-relations agency, to distribute damaging information about Microsoft's allies to media outlets. Oracle admitted that this was the "Microsoft adversary associated with the computer industry who refused to be further identified," which was the sole source for Brinkley's article.Glenn R. Simpson and Ted Bridis
Oracle Admits It Hired Agency To Investigate Allies of Microsoft
Wall Street Journal, Updated June 28, 2000.


References


External links

*
EDIRC listing
(provided by RePEc)
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)
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GuideStar Candid is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies. In 2016, its database provided information on 2.5 million organizations.Wyland, Michael. "GuideStar Introduces Program Metrics Section for Nonprofit Profile ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Independent Institute 1986 establishments in California Non-interventionism Political and economic think tanks in the United States Think tanks established in 1986 Libertarian organizations based in the United States Libertarian think tanks