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Reason Foundation

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    The Reason Foundation is an American libertarian policy institute that was founded in 19781. The foundation publishes the magazine Reason. Based in Los Angeles, California, it is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. According to its website, the foundation is committed to advancing "a free society by developing, applying, and promoting libertarian principles, including individual liberty, free markets, and the rule of law"1. In the 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, the foundation was number 56 in the "Top Think Tanks in the United States"2.

    Reason Foundation's policy research areas include: air traffic control, American domestic monetary policy, school choice, eminent domain, government reform, housing, land use, immigration, privatization, public-private partnerships, urban traffic and congestion, transportation, industrial hemp, medical marijuana, police raids and militarization, free trade, globalization and telecommunications. Affiliated projects include Drew Carey's Reason TV video website. Reason Foundation staff also regularly contribute to the Out of Control Policy Blog.

    Reason Foundation co-founder Robert Poole is an MIT-trained engineer and the author of Cutting Back City Hall3. The book provided the intellectual support for Margaret Thatcher's privatization efforts in the United Kingdom. Poole remains at the foundation serving as a member of the board of trustees and Director of Transportation Policy. Poole founded Reason with Manny Klausner and Tibor Machan3.

    Background

    Robert Poole founded Reason Foundation and served as president from 1978 to 20003. Lynn Scarlett was president in early 20014. David Nott, a Stanford University graduate, has served as Reason Foundation's president since 20015.

    The foundation is a partner member of the State Policy Network, a U.S. national network of free-market-oriented think tanks6.

    Funding and partners

    As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Reason Foundation is supported by donations and sale of its publications7. In 2022, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave a $900,117 grant to Reason for improving "educational outcomes for low income, Black and Latinx Students”8. From 2015 to 2022, the independent rating group Charity Navigator rated Reason with a Four-Star rating9.

    Publications

    Annual Privatization Report

    Reason Foundation publishes the Annual Privatization Report, which reports on news and trends in U.S. outsourcing, privatization and public-private partnerships. Privatization Watch was another of the Foundation's privatization publications published until 2009. Innovators in Action was an annual report, published until 2016, showing how market-based policies were used by governments at various levels. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former Colorado Governor Bill Owens each wrote a column for this publication in 200710.

    Annual Highway Report

    Reason Foundation's Annual Highway Report ranks each state's highway system on cost-effectiveness11.

    Reason magazine

    Reason magazine, founded in 1968 by Lanny Friedlander and purchased in 1970 by Poole, Klausner and Machan, is published by Reason Foundation since its founding in 1978. The magazine covers politics, culture and ideas through a mix of news, analysis, commentary and reviews. Reason and its online presence, reason.com, are editorially-independent from the foundation.

    Policy areas

    Privatization

    Reason Foundation cofounder Robert Poole "is credited as the first person to use the term 'privatization' to refer to the contracting-out of public services and is the author of the first-ever book on municipal privatization, Cutting Back City Hall, published by Universe Books in 1980"3. The book was very influential, notably, by providing the intellectual support for Margaret Thatcher's privatization efforts in the United Kingdom12. Thatcher wrote in the foundation's Annual Privatization Report 2006, "State control is fundamentally bad because it denies people the power to choose and the opportunity to bear responsibility for their own actions. Conversely, privatisation shrinks the power of the state and free enterprise enlarges the power of the people"13.

    The Reason Foundation supports the privatization of (or public-private partnerships for) almost all government functions. Leonard Gilroy, Reason's vice president of government reform, described privatization as "a strategy to lower the costs of government and achieve higher performance and better outcomes for tax dollars spent"14. Gilroy also noted that "If badly executed, privatization like any other policy can fail. Taxpayers are no better off, and may be worse off, if a service is moved from a government agency to an incompetent or inefficient private business"14.

    Transportation

    Reason is engaged in several transportation policy endeavors. Foundation cofounder Robert Poole serves as Director of Transportation Policy3. According to The New York Times, "[f]or 17 years, Mr. Poole has been the chief theorist for private solutions to gridlock. His ideas are now embraced by officials from Sacramento to Washington"15.

    The Galvin Mobility Project has led to the production of studies on the causes of congestion, such as the book Mobility First: A New Vision for Transportation in a Globally Competitive Twenty-first Century16 by Reason's former director of urban growth and land-use Policy, Sam Staley17.

    1. "About Reason Foundation" (Reason.org), accessed 17 July 2024. ↩︎

    2. James G. McGann, 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report (Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, The Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania, 28 January 2021), 90-96, accessed 17 July 2024. ↩︎

    3. "Robert Poole: Director of Transportation Policy, Reason Foundation" (Reason.org), accessed 17 July 2024. ↩︎

    4. "Lynn Scarlett - Biography" (U. S. Department of the Interior, 15 January 2009), accessed 18 July 2024. ↩︎

    5. "David Nott: President & CEO, Reason Foundation" (Reason.org), accessed 18 July 2024. ↩︎

    6. "Reason Foundation | State Policy Network" (SPN.org), accessed 18 July 2024. ↩︎

    7. "Frequently Asked Questions: What is Reason Foundation" (Reason.org), accessed 18 July 2024. ↩︎

    8. Peter Greene, "The Gates Foundation Just Gave The Reason Foundation Almost A Million Dollars For Education" (Forbes.com, 22 November 2022), accessed 19 July 2024. ↩︎

    9. "Reason Foundation" (CharityNavigator.org), accessed 18 July 2024. ↩︎

    10. Geoffrey Segal, "Rudy Giuliani, Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Others Explain How to Make Government More Accountable and Effective" (Reason.org, 19 July 2007), accessed 19 July 2024. ↩︎

    11. Baruch Feigenbaum, Truong Bui, and Thuy Nguyen, 27th Annual Highway Report (Reason.org, April 2023), accessed 23 July 2024. ↩︎

    12. John Blundell, Margaret Thatcher: A Portrait of the Iron Lady (New York: Algora Publishing, 2008), 100-101. ↩︎

    13. Margaret Thatcher, "Rebuilding an Enterprise Society through Privatisation", in Annual Privatization Report 2006, ed. Leonard C. Gilroy (Reason Foundation, 2006), 7. ↩︎

    14. Leonard Gilroy and Adrian Moore, "Ten Principles of Privatization" (Reason.org, 9 July 2010), accessed 25 July 2024. ↩︎

    15. Timothy Egan, "Paying on the Highway to Get Out of First Gear" (NYTimes.com, 28 April 2005), accessed 25 July 2024. ↩︎

    16. Sam Staley and Adrian Moore, Mobility First: A New Vision for Transportation in a Globally Competitive Twenty-first Century (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009). ↩︎

    17. "Samuel Staley, Research Fellow, Reason Foundation" (Reason.org), accessed 25 July 2024. ↩︎

    This article is derived from the English Wikipedia article "Reason Foundation" as of 10 Jan 2024, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.