Reason Foundation

Reason Foundation advances a free society by developing, applying, and promoting libertarian principles, including individual liberty, free markets, and the rule of law. We use journalism and public policy research to influence the frameworks and actions of policymakers, journalists, and opinion leaders.

Tibor, Manny, and I developed the plan for what became the Reason Foundation. Thanks to an angel investor, we had enough funds to make the transition, and we opened our doors in downtown Santa Barbara in July 1978 ... During the Foundation's early years, [Tibor] secured funding annual summer research seminars in political philosophy, bringing a dozen or more scholars to Santa Barbara ... He and I had conflicting views about what Reason Foundation should become: He wanted a more academic, philosophical focus, while I wanted a public policy think tank. Our growing board preferred the latter ...

In 1978 ... Tibor, Manny, and I created Reason Foundation to provide a good home for Reason magazine, but also to research and publicize better policy ideas like privatization and deregulation ... in the 1990s, first under Bill Eggers and later Adrian Moore, came hundreds of Reason Foundation policy studies, aimed at people in government who really want to make positive change ... The Foundation is now a 25-person operation, with policy researchers doing privatization, school choice, environment, transportation, and urban policy. We have a growing fan club in Congress and the White House ...

[Doherty] says that Robert Poole "sums up the most charitable [sic] current assessment of Rothbard in most mainstream libertarian institutions outside the Mises Institute ..." ... Poole's assessment is that although Rothbard "was important, particularly in the 1970s ... I [Poole] thought ... that he was a very divisive figure ..." ... So much for charity. I do not think it altogether a coincidence that the person Doherty here selects to represent mainstream opinion, Robert Poole, is the founder of the Reason Foundation, which publishes the journal for which Doherty works as an editor.