The History of the John Locke Foundation

Looking back at it now, the creation of the John Locke Foundation was probably inevitable. The value and effectiveness of public policy think tanks had already been demonstrated by such venerable institutions as the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute.

In addition, the idea of establishing a think tank in a state capital to advance the principles of individual liberty and the free market had already proven itself during the 1980s in states from Massachusetts to South Carolina to Illinois to California. North Carolina was a particularly good prospect for a free-market think tank, given its size, importance, relatively conservative population, and lack of any large newspapers or public policy organizations friendly to free-market principles.

When a small but enthusiastic group of North Carolinians began to plan the John Locke Foundation in late 1988 and 1989, however, the task seemed daunting. Fund-raising, research, publications, and planning public forums and events would take a great deal of time and effort. Mastering the details of public policymaking in North Carolina would be a challenge. The political and media establishment of the state couldn't be expected to greet the new organization with anything but disinterest or even hostility. While the founders of the Locke Foundation were experienced in politics, journalism, and academia, none had run a think tank or even worked at one.

Opening Its Doors

And yet, somehow, the enterprise began to take shape. The John Locke Foundation was incorporated in 1989 with Art Pope, elected the previous year to the North Carolina House, as its first chairman. The board of directors expanded to include lawyers and business executives, Democrats and Republicans, from across the state. Several foundations and individual donors pledged financial support. Marc Rotterman, a public affairs consultant and former Reagan and Martin administration appointee, and John Hood, a reporter at The New Republic in Washington, came on board soon afterward as the Foundation's first staff members. On February 19, 1990, the John Locke Foundation - then little more than a Raleigh office and a bundle of ideas - opened its doors.

The organization chose its namesake carefully. The Foundation bears the name of John Locke, the 17th Century English philosopher whose writings on government and political freedom inspired our country's founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. A personal physician and political advisor to the Lord Proprietor of the Colony of Carolina, Locke played a major role in drawing up the Fundamental Constitution of Carolina in 1665. And he was a great believer in the value of public debate and policy research. "To prejudge other men's notions before we have looked into them," Locke once wrote, "is not to show their darkness but to put out our own eyes."

The Foundation soon established many of the programs it is known for today. It began distributing a weekly newspaper column, "Carolina Beat," to all the newspapers in North Carolina. It began publishing a monthly newsletter, Carolina Issues, that was later expanded to a magazine format and renamed Carolina Journal. In May, the Foundation held its first "Headliner" public policy luncheon in Raleigh, featuring Hoover Institution scholar and former Reagan domestic policy advisor Martin Anderson.

In June 1990, the Foundation published its first research paper, a short analysis of North Carolina's state budget and tax rates that called for sizable tax relief for state residents (an idea finally implemented during the 1995 session of the General Assembly, with $364 million in income and intangibles tax reduction). And in August, the Foundation released its first major Policy Report, entitled Missing Rungs: Housing and Regulation in North Carolina.

In its first thirteen years, the John Locke Foundation has researched, reported on, talked about, and influenced legislation on virtually every issue facing state and local policymakers in North Carolina. On education, the Foundation has examined the sorry record of the public schools, advocated deregulation and parental choice, crunched numbers on teacher salaries and school spending, and questioned the priorities and performance of the state's public universities. The Foundation has published accurate numbers on the growth of state and local government spending, and publicized the economic costs imposed by North Carolina's excessive rates of taxation and regulation. On business issues, the Foundation has outlined alternatives to zoning, questioned the state's economic development policies, and lampooned politicians' promises of job growth and economic prosperity from government subsidies and higher taxes. From private toll roads to medical savings accounts to privatizing local government services, the Foundation has put new ideas on the public agenda. And during campaign seasons, Foundation staff members have discussed races, analyzed political trends, rated media coverage of political candidates, and endorsed thorough reforms of the political process itself such as term limits and citizen initiatives.

Building A Reputation

Gradually, the Foundation established a reputation for independence, accuracy, and innovative thinking. Public officials, business leaders, and the press began to take notice. Articles by Locke writers appeared regularly in dozens of state newspapers, while The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer of Raleigh, The News & Record of Greensboro, and The Winston-Salem Journal, among others, turned to the Locke Foundation for timely quotes and analysis of state issues. State legislators of both parties called on the Foundation to provide background information and research. Foundation staffers were invited to address business groups and civic organizations. In 1993, a new publication delivered by fax and electronic mail, Carolina Journal Weekly Report, began to feed breaking news and analysis directly to the state's lobbyists, business executives, reporters, talk show hosts, and policymakers. Slowly but surely, the Foundation's influence spread and its ideas were heard by more North Carolinians.

Testifying to its growing significance, the Locke Foundation became a popular destination for some of America's leading political figures, journalists, and policy analysts. A partial list of speakers at Locke events would include Newt Gingrich, Jack Kemp, Dick Cheney, Phil Gramm, Carroll Campbell, Robert Novak, Fred Barnes, Morton Kondracke, Bret Schundler, John Norquist, Ed Crane, John Goodman, Gary Bauer, Lynne Cheney, Elizabeth Dole,William Bennett and Paul Weyrich. At the same time, North Carolina leaders such as Sen. Lauch Faircloth, Gov. Jim Hunt, former Gov. Jim Martin, North Carolina House Speaker Harold Brubaker, former Lt. Gov. Jim Gardner, Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, former House Speaker Dan Blue, Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer, former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot, and U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor continued to address the Foundation.

Having An Impact

How has the John Locke Foundation contributed to the public policy debate in North Carolina? Ideas that were once ignored or shunned by the state's political and media establishments - such as school choice, welfare reform, and privatization - are now discussed daily in our state. Through the Foundation's regular newspaper columns, radio and T.V. appearances, and copious news coverage, thousands of North Carolinians are receiving information about their government that was previously unavailable. A new cadre of leaders -- in the General Assembly, on county commissions, and in city halls across North Carolina -- are seeking to implement free-market policy alternatives that many of them first read about in Locke publications or heard about at Locke events.