Influence
In January 2009 Foreign Policy and the University of Pennsylvania named the Adam Smith Institute among the top 10 think-tanks in the world outside of the US. The Institute is highly influential in UK public policy, and was "a pioneer of privatisation" in the UK and elsewhere. Early Institute papers proposed the outsourcing of local government services (1980), the fundamentals of the poll tax (1981–1985), and the deregulation and privatisation of transportation (1980). The privatisation of British Rail in 1997 was also based on a plan suggested by the Institute. Other influences include the UK's cutting of the highest rate of income tax from 83% to 40% in the late 1980s, and its liberalisation of alcohol licensing laws.
The Institute has released a series of Roadmap to Reform papers, calling for shifts in public policy in Health, Deregulation and Europe. In 2006, the Institute released a paper calling for a rethink of Britain's countryside policy.
Read more about this topic: Adam Smith Institute
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“If morality had naturally no influence on human passions and actions, it were in vain to take such pains to inculcate it; and nothing would be more fruitless than that multitude of rules and precepts with which all moralists abound.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“If the dignity as well as the prestige and influence of the United States are not to be wholly sacrificed, we must protect those who, in foreign ports, display the flag or wear the colors of this Government against insult, brutality, and death, inflicted in resentment of the acts of their Government, and not for any fault of their own.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“What do women want with votes, when they hold the sceptre of influence with which they can control even votes, if they wield it aright?”
—Mrs. H. O. Ward (1824–1899)