Headquarters 52 Vanderbilt Avenue President Lawrence J. Mone Founder William J. Casey | Location New York, NY Phone +1 212-599-7000 Founded 1978 | |
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Formation 1978; 39 years ago (1978) Type Public policy think tank Budget Revenue: $17,408,881
Expenses: $15,638,756
(FYE September 2015) Address 52 Vanderbilt Ave #201, New York, NY 10017, USA Hours Closed today SundayClosedMonday8AM–5PMTuesday8AM–5PMWednesday8AM–5PMThursday8AM–5PMFriday8AM–5PMSaturdayClosed Motto Turning Intellect into Influence Similar Hillsdale College, The King's College, Milano School of Internatio, John F Kennedy School of Profiles | ||
The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (renamed in 1981 from the International Center for Economic Policy Studies) is an American think tank established in New York City in 1978 by Antony Fisher and William J. Casey. The organization describes its mission as to "develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility". Its message is communicated through books, articles, interviews, speeches, op-eds, and through the institute's quarterly publication City Journal. According to the 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report and Policy Advice (Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, University of Pennsylvania), the Institute is number 39 of the "Top 60 United States Think Tanks".
Contents
Programs
The Institute's divisions include the Center for the American University, Center for State and Local Leadership, Center for Legal Policy, Center for Medical Progress, Center for Energy Policy and the Environment, and Economics21.
The Center for the American University publishes a web magazine titled Minding the Campus. John Leo, former U.S. News & World Report columnist is the magazine's editor.
The Manhattan Institute sponsors the Adam Smith Society, a nationwide group of business school students.
Created in 2006, the Institute's Veritas Fund for Higher Education is a donor advised fund that invests in universities and professors who are committed to bringing intellectual pluralism to their institutions. The fund invests in courses related to western civilization, the American founding, and political economy.
Legal Reform
The Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy authors policy papers on various aspects of legal reform. The Center for Legal Policy regularly writes on corporate governance developments, overcriminalization, and reform of the lawsuit industry. Corporate governance reports usually focus on proxy voting records. Overcriminalization issue briefs typically study the growth of the criminal law in state penal codes. Proposed reforms to America's lawsuit practice are published under the center's ongoing publication of Trial Lawyers, Inc.
Law enforcement
The Manhattan Institute is perhaps best known for its influence on law enforcement methods. In particular, the Institute is widely credited with pioneering community policing methods and more specifically quality-of-life policing, also known as "broken windows theory" after the landmark 1982 Atlantic Monthly article "Broken Windows" by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. Broken Windows posits that dealing more effectively and comprehensively with low-level quality of life crime would reduce more high-profile violent crime. Broken Windows policing was put to its first major large-scale test in the mid-1990s after the election of Rudolph Giuliani as mayor of New York City. Giuliani was an outspoken advocate of community policing, frequently citing the influence "Broken Windows" had on his thinking as mayor. Giuliani appointed Kelling’s intellectual collaborator William J. Bratton as New York City Police Commissioner in 1994, saying, "I chose Bill Bratton because he agreed with the Broken Windows theory."
A follow-up book by Kelling and Catherine Coles published by the Manhattan Institute in 1996 led to further interest in community policing methods, leading some municipalities to adopt quality-of-life and community policing as official policy. Giuliani-era New York City Police Commissioner Bratton took these methods to Los Angeles on being appointed Los Angeles Police Department chief of police. Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker has been lauded for his Broken Windows-based approach to crime since taking office in 2006.
Senior fellow Heather Mac Donald argues that crime prevention statistics from the 2008–2009 recession improved as a result of efficient policing, high incarceration rates, more police officers working, data-driven approaches such as CompStat which helps commanders target high-crime areas, and a policy of holding precinct commanders accountable for results. She contends the decline of American cities, beginning during the 1960s, was a result of crime "spiraling out of control".
Welfare reform
The Manhattan Institute was one of the key institutions that pressed for reform of the welfare system in the mid-1990s. Charles Murray's Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980 (1984) argued that the welfare state had fostered a culture and cycle of dependency that was to the detriment of both welfare recipients and the United States as a whole.
Charter schools and vouchers
Former senior fellow Jay P. Greene’s research on school choice was cited four times in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, which affirmed the constitutionality of school vouchers.
Medicare
The Institute's Center for Medical Progress opposes allowing the federal government to negotiate prices in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program and believes that drug price negotiating has adverse effects in the Veterans Administration.
Hydraulic fracturing
The Manhattan Institute is a proponent of the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) method of extracting natural gas and oil from underground deposits. In response to calls to ban fracking in parts of New York, the Manhattan Institute released a report in 2011 projecting that allowing fracking could "inject over $11 billion into the state economy".