Globalisation:Antony Fisher

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Despite having a relatively normal upbringing for someone of that era, there was no single person that was more important in encouraging the spread of think tanks than Sir Antony Fisher. A Royal Air Force pilot in World War II and successful businessman, Fisher sought advice from Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek on how to stop the spread of collectivism and to encourage a resurgence of classical liberal ideas. "Don't go into politics, Focus instead on the world of ideas" is what Hayek told him. It is from this that fisher was able to build such a successful career devoting the most of it to promoting and establishing such institutes as the international policy network and notable other overseas ones such the ones found in the links to other organisationssection.

Biography

Early Life

Fisher grew up in the South East of England and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. From here he volunteered for the RAF at the start of World War II until the death of his brother during the battle which grounded Fisher. This led him to a change in direction and, combined with his already heavy passion for politics, an article he found in one of his many copies of Reader’s Digest led him towards a career which would eventually prove to alter the way in which the progression of globalisation would happen in the world with specific reference to the gradual setting up of think tanking institutes around the world. To understand what Fisher contributed, no matter how intentional, to the general advancement of globalisation it is important to go back to what gave him the desire to make a change in day to day society. It began when he found a condensed version of Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom in an edition of Reader's Digest in 1945. It was only having read the work and agreeing strongly enough with his words that Fisher decided to pursue the matter by meeting Hayek himself at his office in the London School of Economics. It was at this meeting where a key conversation took place: “What can I do? Should I enter politics?” is what Fisher asks when he entered, to which Hayek responds “No, society’s course will be changed only by a change in ideas. First you must reach the intellectuals, the teachers and writers, with reasoned argument. It will be their influence on society which will prevail, and the politicians will follow”. It was from this that Fisher decided that the best way to act on Hayek’s advice would be to set up an independent research institute to specifically bring innovative market-based perspectives to issues of public policy. It was here in 1955 when he founded the Institute of Economic Affairs in London. . This can be seen as one of the first vectors on which he was able to carry globalisation around the world. Assuming the definition of globalisation used by Ulrich Beck is correct and that as a phenomenon it is irreversible, then it is important to understand why so. This irreversibility has a whole host of different reasons but one which is important and most relevant to Antony Fisher is that of the emergence of a post-national, polycentric world politics, in which actors (corporations and NGOs) are growing in power and number alongside governments. The key examples on how these actors have grown and become pivotal influences to government began to emerge after the birth of the IEA. Having successfully set up the IEA and with its ever increasing reputation the next stage in Fisher’s life was started when he was asked to help out in the setting up of various institutes across the world including the Fraser and Manhattan Institutes. . It is here where his think tanking institutes finally meet public policy when the thatcherite revolution took full flight.

Later Life

Fisher was majorly involved in what is often referred to as the Thatcherite or Conservative Revolution, which can be described as a neoliberal revolution that tried and (thanks in main to the part played by some of Fisher’s think tanks, such as the IEA) succeeded in changing the general ideology held in the time following the war which assumed that because the government held the nation through such testing times during the war, then it would only make sense that the state were to play the major role in the peaceful times. It was the findings of this institute which played a major role in the attempted decommissioning of the welfare state, with emphasis being put on the individual to look after one another rather than the government looking after everyone. Fisher believed that state power should be greatly reduced and that an open free market should exist between amore privatized institutions; it would only be through this approach that individual freedom itself would grow and in turn lead to an overall more prosperous economy.. It was Fishers undying ambition for this to happen that led him to being recognized by Margaret Thatcher herself when saluting the founders of IEA (namely Fisher) “They were the few, but they were right, and they saved Britain.” In respect to what they had generally done to help what the Conservative government felt was the best thing for England at the time . it is this process of taking one company or institute from a local or national level to a global stage can be seen as one of many basic definitions to the far from basic concept of globalisation which has developed from capatilism through centuries. It is Fisher who was the pioneer of such institutes and his specific goal after this was to spread them around the world and as a result by the time of his death he had set up 30 institutes in some 20 different countries around the globe as well as supplying money which started and maintained an annual think tank conference.

Legacy

Since his death, the ever rising popularisation of such institutes is evident in that it has risen from the 30 in 20 countries there are now over 200 think tanks worldwide in some 120 countries. As well as this being a great goal of Fishers which will continuously be reached even after his death, it also helps to reinforce the stance that the more of these organisations sprout around the world, the more the effects of globalisation are setting in. Fisher would be proud, the way in which these copy cat institutes are set up around the world today to promote healthy governance and a free market system, which in reality is just another way of spreading the west to the rest of the world. His legacy will therefore continue to breed the progression of globalisation round the world through the continued promotion of such institutes which he spent most of his life giving rise to and then sustaining. One final thing which has happened since Fisher’s death which has paved the way for more of the same in terms of this development in the transferral of knowledge across is the creation of an award to commemorate his ideals and achievements. The Fisher Award recognizes the institutes that published a book, magazine, report, monograph, or study that, in the opinion of the judges, made the greatest contribution to public understanding of the free society. The winner is given $10, 000 to further spend on the forwarding of the research for their institute.