Conservative foundations funded unorthodox ideas decades before the think tank boom

Evidence

Through direct contributions to carefully chosen intellectuals and institutions, they sought to facilitate the expression of unorthodox ideas in the national conversation, and thereby to provoke longterm ideological change. In contrast to other contemporary sources of funding, they did not expect any immediate tangible return for their investments. Instead, they attempted to support viewpoints that fell outside the po liti cal and academic mainstream, and they approached “the unique and unorthodox” as “an advantage, rather than a handicap.” In adopting this strategy, they demonstrated an extraordinary faith in the capacity of abstract ideas to generate substantive po liti cal change. These commitments remained central to the conservative movement in subsequent de cades and developed a palpable infl uence with the emergence of a new collection of lavishly funded think tanks in the 1970s and 1980s. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 322

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the funding-of-think-tanks literature (e.g. Oreskes & Conway on Mercantile/Scaife foundations seeding climate denial and libertarian economics) and to how the reader’s own work on austerity traces the neoliberal pipeline. — connects to: Conservative ideas formed through cross-national networks and institutional contexts, not isolated biography. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 27; Rightwing ideological funding organizations were almost nonexistent in the postwar period — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 250; Foundation funding and private research work shaped early neoliberal career paths — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 101 (+8 more)
• SEED: Angle: ‘Patient capital’ — how foundations that waited decades for ideological returns differed structurally from outcomes-based philanthropy today, and what that patience bought politically.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism’s 1980s breakthrough rested on decades of prior institutional groundwork #corroborates (0.87) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 128
• Neoliberal development thought began decades before its late-1970s influence. #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1264
• Neoliberal development thought predated and coexisted with left-wing theories rather than countering them #corroborates (0.84) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1266
• Foundation funding and private research work shaped early neoliberal career paths #corroborates (0.82) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 101
• The Volker Fund redirected a charity into American conservative intellectual politics #exemplifies (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 716
• NSF-funded research helped originate the conservative economic ideas now used to justify cutting NSF. #exemplifies (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 805
• Postwar business conservatives built think tanks that functioned like political parties without mass support. #corroborates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1440
• Unorthodox minority ideas depend on wealthy iconoclasts for funding #corroborates (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1475