# Cato Institute The premier libertarian think tank and the only major policy institution on the American right that consistently opposes *both* progressive regulation *and* conservative social policy. Founded in 1977 by Charles Koch and Ed Crane, Cato produces research advocating individual liberty, free markets, limited government, and non-interventionist foreign policy. Cato's $40-45M annual budget makes it the third-largest right-of-center think tank. But its ideological heterodoxy — opposing the drug war, mass surveillance, immigration restriction, and military adventurism alongside opposing regulation and taxation — puts it at odds with MAGA on nearly every social issue. Cato represents the libertarian tradition that [[the New Right]] is actively trying to displace. ## The Koch Split Charles Koch co-founded Cato and initially treated it as a Koch network institution. In 2012, the relationship fractured in a public lawsuit: Koch attempted to gain control of Cato's board after the death of co-founder William Niskanen, whose shares Koch claimed. Cato's leadership resisted, arguing that Koch wanted to turn the independent think tank into a political tool. The lawsuit settled with a restructured board and Koch's influence reduced. But the episode crystallized the tension between *libertarian independence* and *donor political control* — the same tension now playing out across the broader conservative think tank ecosystem. ## Where Cato Breaks From MAGA | Issue | Cato Position | MAGA Position | |-------|--------------|---------------| | **Immigration** | Pro-immigration reform, work visas, path to legal status | Restriction, deportation, wall | | **Trade** | Free trade, anti-tariff | Economic nationalism, tariffs | | **Drug policy** | End the drug war, legalize marijuana | Law and order | | **Surveillance** | Anti-NSA, anti-FISA, [[Fourth Amendment]] absolutism | Pro-surveillance (ICE, FBI under allies) | | **Foreign policy** | Non-interventionist, alliance-skeptical | Hawkish on Iran/China, NATO-skeptical | | **Criminal justice** | Reform, reduce incarceration | Tough on crime | | **Social issues** | Pro-individual-liberty (marriage, etc.) | Social conservatism | This makes Cato a genuinely heterodox institution — it opposes the regulatory state (aligning with the right) while opposing the surveillance/military/social-control state (aligning with civil libertarians on the left). In the MAGA era, this position is increasingly marginal within the Republican coalition. ## Key Research Areas - **Economic freedom:** Cato's Economic Freedom of the World index is a global benchmark - **Trade policy:** Center for Trade Policy Studies — among the strongest free-trade voices in Washington - **Criminal justice:** Cato has been a leader in bipartisan criminal justice reform - **Technology and privacy:** Anti-surveillance, anti-censorship, skeptical of tech regulation - **Foreign policy:** Restraint-oriented — opposes military intervention, questions alliance commitments - **Regulation:** Deregulation across sectors, but from a *principled* rather than *cronyist* position ## The Libertarian Moment That Wasn't In the early 2010s, there was widespread speculation about a "libertarian moment" in American politics — the convergence of Tea Party economics, social tolerance, and anti-war sentiment into a new political coalition. Cato would have been its intellectual home. Instead, the right went nationalist (Trump, Vance, Claremont) and the left went progressive (Warren, Sanders, DSA). The libertarian middle collapsed electorally. Cato's positions remain intellectually coherent but politically homeless — too pro-immigration for Republicans, too anti-regulation for Democrats. ## See Also - [[Koch Network]] — Co-founding relationship, complicated split - [[American Enterprise Institute]] — Fellow establishment-right tank (less libertarian) - [[Heritage Foundation]] — Movement-right counterpart (more MAGA-aligned) - [[Claremont Institute]] — Post-liberal counterpart (explicitly anti-libertarian) - [[Think Tank Ecosystem]] — Full think tank landscape