Madsen Pirie | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 24 August 1940 Kingston upon Hull, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | University of Edinburgh (MA) University of St Andrews (PhD) Pembroke College, Cambridge (MPhil) |
| Occupation | Economist |
Duncan Madsen Pirie OBE (born 24 August 1940 [1] ) is a British researcher and author. He is a co-founder and current President of the Adam Smith Institute, a UK neoliberal think tank which has been in operation since 1977.
Born in Hull, Pirie is the son of Douglas Pirie and Eva Madsen. As a child he attended the Humberstone Foundation School (also known as Clee Grammar School for Boys and later Matthew Humberstone Comprehensive School) in Old Clee, Lincolnshire.
He graduated with an MA (undergraduate) in History from the University of Edinburgh (1970). He attended the University of St Andrews, joining the Conservative Association, [2] and graduating with a PhD in Philosophy in 1974. [3] He earned an MPhil in Land Economy from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1997).
Pirie was secretary of Mensa International from 1979 to 1992. [4] [5]
Before co-founding the Adam Smith Institute, Pirie worked for the United States House of Representatives. [6] He was a Visiting Professor of Logic and Philosophy at the private Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, US.[ citation needed ] Alongside Douglas Mason, he helped devise the poll tax. [7]
Pirie was one of three Britons living in the United States who founded the Adam Smith Institute, [8] a UK-based think tank that champions the ideas of free market policy, and the elimination of government economic controls. [9] In January 2010 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. [10] Pirie served as the organization's president. [11] The Adam Smith Institute was ranked 56th in the 2019 University of Pennsylvania index report. [12]
Pirie was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to public policy. [13] [14]
Privatization can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when a heavily regulated private company or industry becomes less regulated. Government functions and services may also be privatised ; in this case, private entities are tasked with the implementation of government programs or performance of government services that had previously been the purview of state-run agencies. Some examples include revenue collection, law enforcement, water supply, and prison management.
Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character and style of management while in office. Proponents of Thatcherism are referred to as Thatcherites. The term has been used to describe the principles of the British government under Thatcher from the 1979 general election to her resignation in 1990. In international terms, Thatcherites have been described as a part of the general socio-economic movement known as neoliberalism, with different countries besides the United Kingdom sharing similar policies around expansionary capitalism.
The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a centre-right think tank and advocacy group in the United Kingdom. Its goal is to promote coherent and practical policies based on its founding principles of: free markets, "small state," low tax, national independence, self determination and responsibility. While being independent, the centre has historical links to the Conservative Party.
The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) is a UK-based neoliberal think tank and lobbying group, named after Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher and classical economist. The Institute advocates free market and classical liberal ideas, primarily via the formation of policy options with regard to public choice theory, which political decision makers seek to develop upon. ASI President Madsen Pirie has sought to describe the activity of the organisation as "[w]e propose things which people regard as being on the edge of lunacy. The next thing you know, they're on the edge of policy".
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a right-wing, free market think tank registered as a UK charity. Associated with the New Right, the IEA describes itself as an "educational research institute" and says that it seeks to "further the dissemination of free-market thinking" by "analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems". The IEA is the oldest free market think-tank in the UK and was established to promote free-market responses to economic challenges by targeting influential academics and journalists, as well as students, in order to propagate these ideas widely. Adopting as its credo FA Hayek's view that "yesterday's dissent becomes today's consensus," the IEA says that it prioritises producing work with a focus on economic insights over partisan politics.
The Mont Pelerin Society (MPS), founded in 1947, is an international organization of economists, philosophers, historians, intellectuals and business leaders. It has been described as neoliberal in its ideological orientation, though some scholars claim that it is classically liberal. It is headquartered at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The society advocates freedom of expression, free market economic policies and the political values of an open society. Further, the society seeks to discover ways in which the private sector can replace many functions currently provided by government entities.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), known until 2006 as the Institute for International Economics (IIE), is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded by C. Fred Bergsten in 1981 and has been led by Adam S. Posen since 2013. PIIE conducts research, provides policy recommendations, and publishes books and articles on a wide range of topics related to the US economy and international economics.
The Urban Institute is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank that conducts economic and social policy research to "open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions". The institute receives funding from government contracts, foundations, and private donors.
The Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) is a California-based free-market think tank which promotes "the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility" through policies that emphasize a free economy, private initiative, and limited government. PRI was founded in 1979 by British philanthropist Antony Fisher and a San Francisco businessman James North. The organization has an office in Sacramento California and their headquarters office in Pasadena California.
John C. Goodman is president and CEO of the Goodman institute for Public Policy Research, a think tank focused on public policy issues. He was the founding chief executive of the National Center for Policy Analysis, which operated from 1982 to 2017. He is a senior fellow at the Independent Institute. The Wall Street Journal and The National Journal have called Goodman the "father of Health Savings Accounts."
Edmund Ian Marshall was a British politician and churchman. After beginning his career as a Liberal councillor in Wallasey in the 1960s, he joined the Labour Party and was elected Member of Parliament for Goole at a 1971 by-election. He held the seat until 1983. He later joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which merged with the Liberals in 1988 to become the Liberal Democrats.
Eamonn Butler is a British economist. He is the co-founder and director of the Adam Smith Institute.
Douglas Calder Mason was a Scottish policymaker, writer and antiquarian bookseller. He came to be known as the "father of the poll tax".
NOW! was a British weekly news magazine founded by entrepreneur Sir James Goldsmith, partly as a vehicle for dissemination of his right-wing political opinions. The magazine was headquartered in London.
Matthew Humberstone Church of England School, also known as the Matthew Humberstone School, Matthew Humberstone C of E School, Matthew Humberstone Comprehensive School, MHS and Matty, was a secondary school in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, with a Church of England tradition. It existed between 1973 until it was closed due to amalgamation in 2010.
Stuart M. Butler is a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. Until 2014, he was Director of the Center for Policy Innovation at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Washington, D.C. He is a health care analyst and commentator, and he has also written extensively about urban policy and welfare, credited with introducing the idea of urban enterprise zones to the United States. Butler was an adjunct professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute.
Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism, and his writing is generally regarded as representing the economic expression of 19th-century liberalism up until the Great Depression and rise of Keynesianism in the 20th century. Historically, economic liberalism arose in response to feudalism and mercantilism.
Speedlink was a wagonload freight service that used air-braked wagons and was operated by British Rail from 1977 to 1991.
Sir Adam Nicholas Ridley is a British economist, civil servant, and banker.
