The Adam Smith Institute, abbreviated to ASI, is a Libertarian think tank based in the United Kingdom, named after one of the founders of modern economics, Adam Smith. It espouses free market and classical liberal views, in particular by creating radical policy options in the light of public choice theory, which politicians can then develop. Its president, Madsen Pirie, has said "We propose things which people regard as being on the edge of lunacy. The next thing you know, they're on the edge of policy".
It was the primary intellectual force behind privatisation in the Thatcher era, and, with the Centre for Policy Studies and Institute of Economic Affairs, helped drive Thatcherite policy on privatisation, taxation, education, and health. Several of the Institute's policies have been adopted by the Major and Blair governments, and the ASI has also advised governments overseas.
The Institute currently advocates the free market by publishing books and policy proposals, advising foreign governments, calculating the British Tax Freedom Day, hosting speaker events for young people, and publishing a popular blog.
Read more about Adam Smith Institute: Influence
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“That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages.”
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