A foreign-funded think tank inserted itself directly into Peruvian policymaking

Evidence

Supported from abroad, De Soto’s institute grew in size, developed its advocacy campaign, and inserted itself into the processes of government. During the administration of Alan Garcia, in the second half of the 1980s, it became directly involved in policy making. ILD lawyers drew up proposals for property-rights legislation and administrative reforms. To promote the legislation, the ILD produced television commercials that, borrowing from American state lottery commercials, invited people to dream: “What would you do if you had capital?” By 1991, the Institute had a staff of 100. Victor Endo, an ILD lawyer who later worked at the World Bank, claimed that the think tank became “a kind of school for the country. Most of the important ministers, lawyers, journalists, and economists in Peru are ILD alumni” (Kleiner 2004). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1950

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the neoliberal think-tank literature (Medvetz, Plehwe) — think tanks as policy schools seeding government personnel. — connects to: Atlas Foundation directly engineered the structure of Peru’s flagship neoliberal institution. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1945; Chilean neoliberals founded think tanks to preserve their influence after losing power — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1610; Think tanks arose to replace critical scholars with imperial-friendly policy theory
• SEED: Angle: how a single think tank credentialed an entire country’s elite — the ‘school for the country’ model of policy capture.

Broader Connections

• Atlas Foundation directly engineered the structure of Peru’s flagship neoliberal institution. #expands (0.88) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1945
• Chilean neoliberals founded think tanks to preserve their influence after losing power #corroborates (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1610
• Think tanks arose to replace critical scholars with imperial-friendly policy theory #expands (0.70)