The Cato Institute is a non-profit public policy research foundation (think tank) with strong libertarian leanings, headquartered in Washington, D.C It is named after Cato's Letters, a series of early 18th century British essays exponding the libertarian principles of John Locke, which the Cato Institute's founders say helped lay the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution. Cato's Letters in turn were named after the Roman politician Cato the Younger.

Founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane and Charles G. Koch, its stated mission is "to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace" by seeking greater involvement of the "lay public in questions of public policy and the role of government."

Members of the Cato Institute are frequently cited as non-partisan experts on many news programs. Some have criticized this, pointing to the specific ideological views of the Institute as a whole.

In November 2002, shortly after Cato was named the "Best Advocacy Website" by the Web Marketing Association, the Alexa ratings service issued a report saying that it was "the most popular think tank site over the past three months," receiving a total of 188,901 unique visitors during the previous month of September. [1]

Table of contents
1 Funding
2 Contact Information
3 External links

Funding

Between 1985 and 2001, the Institute received $15,633,540 in 108 separate grants from only nine different foundations:

  • Castle Rock Foundation
  • Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
  • Earhart Foundation
  • JM Foundation
  • John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.
  • Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation
  • Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
  • Scaife Foundations (Sarah Mellon Scaife, Carthage)

Philip Morris CEO Geoffrey Bible and media mogul Rupert Murdoch have both served on the board of directors of Cato, which has numerous ties to the Republican Party. However, Cato has sometimes differed with Republican Party positions on specific issues, such as the 2003 decision by U.S. President George W. Bush to go to war with Iraq. Cato has also criticized the 1998 settlement that many U.S. states signed with the tobacco industry.[1]

Contact Information

http://www.cato.org/
 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20001-5403
Phone (202) 842-0200
Fax (202) 842-3490

External links