Abstract
The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) is a small free-market think tank, mostly funded by private donations, that played a crucial role in the rise of neoliberal thought in Britain in the 1970–1980s. However, come 2008, they found that many of their ideas were increasingly challenged and believed to have caused the crisis by the left. They responded by mounting a spirited defence of deregulation, blaming the state, regulation, and central banks for the crash. As David Cameron’s austerity programme took hold, the ASI defended its implementation, if arguing it did not go far enough. In tandem, they sought to change their image as an overly-ideological organisation and their relatively marginal position in an ever more crowded centre-right. To achieve that, they began advocating for ‘Bleeding-heart Libertarianism’: the idea that free markets should be defended not for a priori reasons, but because they provide the greatest welfare for all.
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Notes
- 1.
Stuart Butler left the ASI to join the Heritage Foundation in 1979, the most important think tank linked to the US Republican Party.
- 2.
In 2010 the ASI was ranked 8th as the best think tank Worldwide (non-US) and 9th in Western Europe.
- 3.
In 2013 the ASI was ranked both 16th and 32nd in the same category (best use of social media).
- 4.
‘Independent Seminar on the Open Society’ and ‘Liberty Lectures,’ for sixth-form (High School) and university students respectively.
- 5.
The ‘Young Writer on Liberty’ is a writing competition for under-21, which asks contestants to submit entries on topics such as “Three policy choices to make the UK freer, richer and happier,” accessed 15 March 2015, http://www.adamsmith.org/student-outreach/young-writer-on-liberty/.
- 6.
Similarly to NEF, ‘fellows’ are people linked to the ASI who share its general philosophy and contribute to the organisation without being involved in its everyday operations. As one interviewee puts it, “‘fellows’ are those who benefit from being associated to the ASI, and ‘Senior Fellows ’ are those the ASI benefits from being associated with” (ASI interview).
- 7.
Richard Theater is Senior Lecturer in Tax Law at Bournemouth University.
- 8.
James Stanfield is Director of Development at E.G. West Centre in Newcastle University.
- 9.
Tim Ambler is a retired Senior Research Fellow in Marketing at the London Business School.
- 10.
Christopher Snowdon is Director of Lifestyle Economics at the IEA.
- 11.
Deepak Lal is Emeritus Professor at UCLA and Fellow of the CATO Institute. He is also a frequent contributor to the IEA.
- 12.
- 13.
One could mention ASI’s links with Edwin Feulner and Stuart Butler, respectively former President and Director of the Center for Policy Innovation of the Heritage Foundation. To these one could add the frequent visits of guest speakers from CATO Institute and George Mason University, Madsen and Eamonn’s past bonds to Hillsdale College, and the public lectures held by ASI members for US-based libertarian think tanks such as the now defunct National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA).
- 14.
Data from Charity Commission (Reg. No. 282164), accessed 18 February 2015, http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/RemovedCharityMain.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=282164&SubsidiaryNumber=0.
- 15.
See the charity Foundation for Research and Education in Economics (Reg. No. 270958), headed by Eamonn Butler. Its mission, as reported in its annual accounts, is “the funding of research, conferences and publications in the general field of social sciences.” According to personal communications with an ASI member (9 March 2015), this entails fundraising for smaller bodies such as student organisations, accessed 10 March 2015, http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithoutPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=270958&SubsidiaryNumber=0.
- 16.
This opacity possibly explains a common confusion. The public accounts of Adam Smith International—an international development organisation to which ASI members were formerly affiliated but which Pirie and Butler claim is now completely independent—are often conflated with those of the ASI. The Adam Smith International budget goes well into the millions of pounds, a significant part of it coming from the DfID (Guardian 2012). See also accessed 13 March 2015, http://www.adamsmithinternational.com/about-us/our-history/.
- 17.
Accessed 20 March 2015, http://whofundsyou.org/org/adam-smith-institute.
- 18.
“Nearly all [donations are] core funding. Some people say ‘I’d like to spend on your youth activities,’ but almost never for a specific event […] We do take individual donations for some of our projects [for instance] ‘we are hoping, with the IEA to run a Freedom Week again, could you possibly support us?’ […] but normally it’s either core funding or for our youth activities […] They might specify” (ASI interview).
- 19.
Accessed 22 March 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt-6lHTpefU.
- 20.
Brendan Brown is associated scholar at the Mises Institute.
- 21.
Kevin Dowd is a partner at the monetary policy consultancy Cobden Partners and professor of finance and economics at Durham University.
- 22.
Charlotte Bowyer is former ASI Head of Digital Policy, working on civil liberties, copyright, and the web.
- 23.
Ben Southwood is former ASI Head of Policy, interested in monetary regimes and sports economics.
- 24.
Phillip Salter is former Programmes Director, later Business-features editor at CityAM and Director of ‘The Entrepreneurs Network.’
- 25.
Kate Andrews is former ASI Communications Manager and is currently IEA’s associate director.
- 26.
Pirie’s writings are awash with principled reasons for free markets, which is likely to continue parallel to consequentialist arguments. See, for instance, this excerpt: “privatization was not a series of policies but a system that fitted into a theoretical approach” (Pirie 2012a: 79).
- 27.
In this social psychology classic, Festinger explores the coping strategies of a sect gathered to wait for the apocalypse in the hours after it fails to materialise. Festinger finds that, when confronted with evidence that undermines a group’s core beliefs, members tend to devise ever more elaborate ways of rationalising conflicting evidence.
- 28.
- 29.
An example of this is when the neoliberal think tank network ‘Stockholm network’ argued for state support for the pharmaceutical industry, which prompted many think tanks to disaffiliate themselves ( Daily Telegraph 2009a).
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González Hernando, M. (2019). The Adam Smith Institute: The Free Market’s Praetorian Guard. In: British Think Tanks After the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Palgrave Studies in Science, Knowledge and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20370-2_4
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