Formed in 1943 as a traditional think tank, after being criticized of being too centrist, the American Enterprise Institute moved right and took a more aggressive public-policy role in domestic and foreign policy affairs. The American Enterprise Institute is dedicated to "preserving and strengthening the foundations of freedom" - limited government, private enterprise, vital cultural and political institutions, and a strong foreign policy and national defense.
Official Organizational Status: Independent institute
Political Orientation: U.S. Conservative
Scope/Research Areas: The American Enterprise Institutes research is conducted in three broad areas, namely economic policy studies, social and political studies and foreign and defense policy studies. Issues of priority are: Tax reform, Social Security and entitlements reform, environmental regulation, economic deregulation, culture and society, religion, intellectual foundations, reform of the U.S. defense structure and redefinition of American foreign policy. Some recent titles include: Income Inequality and IQ. (1998). Ethics of Human Cloning (1998). Calomiris, C. and J. Karceski: Is the Bank Merger Wave of the 1990s Efficient? Lessons from Nine Case Studies. (1998).
Funding Sources: 1998 Budget: US$ 14.3 million. Assets: US$ 24.5 million. Corporate donations (29 %), private donations (27 %), foundations (26 %), conferences, sales, and other revenues (18 %).
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Founded in 1977 the Cato Institutes 1998 budget made up US$ 11 million. Its funding consists of corporate and private donations (especially from corporations and executives in the highly regulated industries of financial services, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals industries) and sales of publications.
Catos corporate donors include tobacco firms:
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The fact that corporate money is seeking to influence public policy is nothing unusual. From the different ways of how private money helps to shape politics the first, and most familiar is direct campaign contributions to political candidates and parties, which is especially widespread in the United States. While the second great river of money goes to underwrite lobbying apparatus in diverse state capitals, the third form of attempts to influence public policy making is less well-known, but nearly as wide and deep as the two others - it is money which underwrites a vast network of public policy think tanks and advocacy groups. Although tried to be labeled in another way, unmistakably, these donations are naked attempts by corporations and other donors, to influence the political process.
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One of the most violent attacks undertaken by conservative U.S. think tanks has been on the federal anti-poverty programs. Beginning in the 1980s the Manhattan Institute sponsored and promoted two publications that urged the elimination of the federal anti-poverty program. "Wealth and Poverty", concluded that poverty was the result of personal irresponsibility, while "Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950 - 1980", observed that anti-poverty programs reduced marriage incentives, discouraged workers form accepting low-wage jobs, and encouraged unintended births among low income teenage and adult women.
These books were followed by Lawrence Mead's "Beyond Entitlement: The Social Obligations of Citizenship", which blamed governments for perpetuating poverty by not requiring welfare recipients to work. Other conservative grantees have used their funds for more than a decade to spread this kind of conservative political rhetoric and policy opinion through major media and conservative-controlled print and broadcast outlets. The redefinition of the problem and the demonization of the poor finally culminated in the passage of the
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