Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, Halifax, NS, Canada
Looking the Gift Horse in the Mouth: The Impact of Federal Transfers on Atlantic Canada by Fred McMahon
Bounty Press, Halifax, NS, Canada, 1996
This controversial book by the young Atlantic Institute for Market Studies earned wide regional and national attention when it questioned the wisdom of large-scale federal transfer payments to Atlantic Canada. With the decline of the region’s fishing industry, federal transfers have increasingly become a way of life for many residents of Atlantic Canada. But, the book a rgues, by introducing serious economic distortions, such transfers more than offset any benefits they provide.
Looking the Gift Horse in the Mouth effectively illustrates how ‘the huge government presence in the region politicizes the economy, inflates the region’s costs and leads people and businesses to look to government support rather than to their own abilities.’ The result of such transfers is not the salvation of economically challenged regions, but their gradual destruction. The only solution, McMahon argues, is the slow weaning of Atlantic Canada from the federal economic dependence years of government transfers have cultivated.
AIMS’s attack on this sacred cow drew significant criticism from regional economists and policy makers. Many of these critics misrepresented Atlantic Canadian economic history; some misrepresented the claims and conclusions of the book. In the face of these attacks, the international recognition of the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award helped buttress the two-and-a-half-year-old institute and its important project. ‘The Fisher Prize,’ author Fred McMahon has written, ‘gave credibility to Gift Horse and helped in a direct way to dispel the misinformation that had been circulated. While only a few media briefs covered the prize directly, it was always mentioned in reports that discussed other aspects of Gift Horse and was often juxtaposed with attacks on the book.’
The book helped launch an important debate throughout Canada on the principles of a free society and a free economy; and AIMS has been able to make a strong case for the benefits that flow from relying more heavily on markets than on the well-intentioned but deeply mistaken policies of the state planners.
Institute of Economic Affairs – Health and Welfare Unit (now Civitas ), London, UK
Community Without Politics by David G. Green
St. Edmundsbury Press Ltd., London, UK, 1996
In Community Without Politics, author David Green brings a classical liberal perspective to the challenge of reforming the welfare state. Green, a leading expert on welfare in Great Britain, argues that fundamental welfare reform depends in part on reviving the classical liberal principles of freedom and community. He recognizes that the problem of how to deal with poverty is primarily a moral one, and that we should give due regard to preserving the dignity and autonomy of the individual, recommending that we draw on our experience with voluntary societies that were remarkably effective in caring for people, without impairing individual dignity or responsibility.
While Green’s essentially philosophical argument received only a limited hearing from the news media, the IEA book is highly regarded by those who are influential in the field. As one reviewer wrote, ‘this book is an excellent resource for dealing with all the muddled thinking and special pleading based on the idea that ‘the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.’ The book has been included in reading lists for courses at universities throughout the UK.
National Center for Policy Analysis, Dallas, TX
Firing Line Public Policy Debate Project
Special Recognition Award for Innovative Projects
Rather than waiting for traditional news outlets to address issues of importance, the National Center for Policy Analysis in 1995 seized the initiative and began creating public policy television programming. NCPA sponsored a series of Firing Line debates, hosted by William Buckley, Jr., to focus national attention on topics such as Social Security privatization and school choice. Broadcast during prime time on the Public Broadcasting System’s 238 television stations, the debates reached more than five million households and helped expand the national discussion of important issues. In 1997, this project received a Special Recognition Award for Innovative Projects as part of the Fisher Awards celebration.
The series of NCPA-sponsored Firing Line debates received broad critical praise. After viewing a debate on the flat tax, Kay Gardella of the New York Daily News thanked Firing Line for, ‘tackling complicated issues and attempting to clarify them for the average viewer. Not one view, but multiple views are available from the knowledgeable guests.’
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