A single foundation seeded a third of all market-oriented think tanks

Evidence

As Fisher had underscored, “one of the difficulties in setting up an institute is to raise the money in the first place, because usually businessmen don’t know what it’s all about.” Atlas could help through “provision of seed money, which could mean an instant start.” Altas’s first investment was in a French institute—the Institut Economique de Paris. In the US, Fisher put high hopes in John Goodman, a PhD graduate in economics from Columbia. In 1983, with a starting grant of $20,000, Goodman launched the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) in Dallas, Texas. In Latin America, Fisher supported de Soto in establishing ILD. Many other fledgling institutes received seed money from Atlas in that period—in Iceland, Australia, Italy, Spain, Latin and North America, and, in the early 1990s, in Russia, Romania, and the Czech Republic. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 573 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Initially, Atlas fostered diffusion through practical “venturing” actions. Having identified individual foot soldiers, it worked to empower them by helping them materially and coaching them directly. Atlas then made sure to keep in contact, with a double objective—to stabilize the think tank locally and to tighten its integration into the transnational neoliberal community. When the Atlas team met motivated individuals, it was ready to finance exploratory trips. In 1988, it thus financed one trip to India and two to Ghana. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 572 (#expands, via linked claim)

By 1981, the fund raising was successful enough for Fisher to establish the Atlas Foundation for Economic Research. He took its name from Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand’s novel of 1957 depicting the vital role played by experts and men of ideas and the virtues of the right of private property and of a self-interested individualism threatened by the powers of government (see Mühlbauer 2006). The foundation’s goal was to coordinate activities and corporate funding among the network of European and American think tanks and to extend it by developing and financing a group of neoliberal organizations outside Western Europe and the United States. De Soto was to be the first and most successful outcome of this initiative. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1943 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Atlas systematically recruited and trained global think tank entrepreneurs — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 566; Atlas incubated think tanks by identifying and financing local individuals — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 572; The Atlas Foundation seeded dozens of think tanks globally with small grants — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 573 (+3 more)

Related

• The Atlas Foundation seeded dozens of think tanks globally with small grants (similarity 0.96)
• Atlas incubated think tanks by identifying and financing local individuals (similarity 0.90)
• Atlas emerged from the IEA as a deliberate global franchising of think tanks (similarity 0.88)
• Atlas Foundation exported the neoliberal think-tank model worldwide (similarity 0.88)
• One organization founded a third of the world’s market-oriented think tanks since 1981 (similarity 0.87)
• Atlas systematically recruited and trained global think tank entrepreneurs (similarity 0.85)
• Atlas served as the travel broker connecting freedom intellectuals to local think tanks (similarity 0.84)
• The Atlas Network scaled from fifteen think tanks to 457 across ninety-six countries. (similarity 0.83)
• Atlas workshops matured from policy promotion to think tank management strategy (similarity 0.81)
• The Atlas Network grew from 15 to 457 think tanks within decades (similarity 0.81)
• Atlas pivoted from attacking universities to funding free-market courses within them (similarity 0.79)
• Atlas’s power shifted from needing partners to partners needing it (similarity 0.78)
• Atlas decentralized to regional sub-networks to solve local adaptation (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The Atlas Foundation seeded dozens of think tanks globally with small grants #corroborates (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 573
• Atlas incubated think tanks by identifying and financing local individuals #expands (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 572
• Atlas Foundation exported the neoliberal think-tank model worldwide #expands (0.83) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1943
• Atlas systematically recruited and trained global think tank entrepreneurs #expands (0.82) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 566
• Atlas emerged from the IEA as a deliberate global franchising of think tanks #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 542