76-02-B2
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Institute for Contemporary Studies[edit]
Transcript[edit]When it comes to research foundations you usually think of big, well-endowed, ivory-tower-type organizations. There's a new one though that's lately been playing David to these Goliaths. I'll be right back. One reason that bills keep cropping up in Congress to regulate land use, to lock the nation into centralized economic planning or to foist compulsory national health insurance on us all, is that the proponents for such measures are often armed with favorable scholarly reports from some well-endowed foundation or think tank. But what passes for conventional wisdom in some Washington circles on these and other important social and economic issues is finding itself challenged these days by a small research foundation working out of a modest suite in an unremarkable office building in San Francisco. It's called the Institute for Contemporary Studies. It isn't quite four years old but already it has published seven books which constitute major studies on public policy issues ranging from government allocation of credit to public employee unions which threaten to overwhelm elected officials. The institute's success according to its President Monroe Brown lies in its ability to produce studies with the integrity of the academician yet boil down to the layman's language. Typically the institute will work with a group of about fifteen scholars who are specialists in the field to draw up each study at commissions. Altogether it now has a cadre of more than a hundred academicians on whose talents it draws because it sees itself as presenting the other side of the coin on many issues. The Institute for Contemporary Studies doesn't give itself the luxury of long time spans to respond to what it considers left-of-center intellectual initiatives. In public policy debates for example, take its response to the Ford Foundation's energy study "A Time to Choose" which was launched with fanfare early last year. The Institute commissioned a group of scholars to analyze the four-million dollar Ford Foundation opus then it brought out their findings ninety days later in a book called "No Time to Confuse." It didn't mince any words either. Here's a sample of its views about "A Time to Choose," quote, "It regrettably confuses energy and environmental issues, enters the Guinness Book of World Records for most errors of economic analysis and fact in one book, is arrogant in assertions of waste and inefficiency, is paternalist in its conception of energy consumption management, is politically naive and uses demagoguery." End quote. These conclusions are backed up by 156 pages of tightly reasoned discourse by 10 scholars. Does this take-off-the-gloves approach work? Well, "No Time to Confuse" has become something of a best seller, 15,000 copies in three printings and it's now going into a fourth. So far it's the Institute's biggest success, but its other studies are drawing compliments and fire from well-known names. "When people take notice," said Mr Brown, "we know we're beginning to have an effect. Nicholas von Hoffman, Marianne Means of the Wall Street Journal have had some good things to say about our studies and that's encouraging. On the other hand, Senator Hubert Humphrey has had some not so nice things to say about us and that's encouraging too." This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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