Democracy Institute

Democracy Institute Logo

The Democracy Institute describes itself as "a politically independent public policy research organisation". Founded in 2006, it has bases in London and Washington where it claims to, “further public education through the production and dissemination of accessible commentary and scholarship” by providing a, “a balanced and thoughtful perspective on topical issues, promoting open and rational debate based on evidence rather than ideology”.

People

• Patrick Basham - Director

Basham was previously the Founding director of the Social Affairs Center at Canada’s Fraser Institute, and was a senior fellow with the Cato Institute's Center for Representative Government.Basham is a former tobacco industry lobbyist and publishes most of the research on the Institute's website along with John Luik who is also a former tobacco industry lobbyist.

The following people are linked to the Democracy Institute through several published articles yet are not officially registered via the organisation's own website:

• John Luik - Senior Fellow
• Christopher Snowdon - Adjunct Scholar

Snowdon is an adjunct Scholar with the Democracy Institute and a freelance journalist who regularly publishes article in the libertarian online magazine spiked. His articles also challenge initiatives that threaten free market policies.

Advisory Council

As listed by the Democracy Institute:

• Nigel Ashford – Institute for Humane Studies Programme officer for the Institute for Humane Studies and previous Scholar for the Heritage Foundation. He has also directed the Principles for a free society project at the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation. the afore mentioned organisations promote conservative views
• Juliette Baysham – Public Health Fellow
• Jason Clemens – Pacific Research Institute Director of Research at the Pacific Research Institute and has previously worked for the Fraser Institute
• Veronique de Rugy – Research Fellow. De Rugy is currently a research fellow at the Mercatus Centre at George Mason University, an adjunct scholar for the Cato Institute and is also on the Board of Directors of the Centre for Freedom and ProsperityDe Rugy has worked as a research fellow for the American Enterprise Institute and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Prior to this she has directed academic programs for the Institute for Humane Studies
• Jamie Dettmer – Research Fellow Dettmer specialises in International Affairs and Political Economy and is the principal and founder of Jamie Dettmer & Associates which is according to its website, ‘a communications, media relations and public affairs advisory network of respected and effective senior-level professionals drawn from PR and journalism in the US, Europe and the Middle East. He previously assumed the role of Director of Communications and Advocacy at International Foundation for Electoral Systems.
• Chris Edwards – Cato Institute. Chris Edwards is the director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute. Prior roles include a senior economist on the congressional Joint Economic Committee and as an economist with the Tax Foundation where he published 13 articles between 1992-1994.
• Ivan Eland - Senior Fellow. Eland is also the Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute. He is the former director of Defense Policy Studies at the Cato Institute and spent 15 years working for Congress on national security issues.
• Jeremy Lott – A Senior Fellow. A journalist who is the editor of Real Clear Religion and is the Competitive Enterprise Institute's current Warren Brookes Journalism Fellow and a contributing editor to Books & Culture Lott was formerly Manager of Editorial Services at the Cato Institute and Assistant Managing Editor of The American Spectator.
• Michael Mosbacher – Social Affairs Unit. Mosbacher has been director the Social Affairs Unit since 2004 although he has assumed other roles within the organisation since 1996. He is also the managing editor of Standpoint magazine from 2008 to the present.
• Gerry Nicholls – Senior Fellow. Gerry Nicholls is a director of the Society for Quality Education which claims he is “one of Canada’s most prominent defenders of our economic and political freedoms”. Prior roles include twenty years employment at the National Citizens Coalition, Canada’s largest independent pro-free market advocacy group. He is also freelance writer working as an independent political consultant to the media.
• Charles Pena – George Washington University. Pena is also a senior Fellow at both the Independent Institute and the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy. He is also currently an adviser on the Straus Military Reform Project. Previously Mr. Peña has been senior fellow with the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute and Foreign Policy Advisor for the 2008 Ron Paul Presidential Campaign
• Christopher Preble – Cato Institute. Preble is the Director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute and writes a blog for The Skeptics at The National Interest
• Marian Tupy – Cato Institute. Marian Tupy is a policy analyst for the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at the Cato Institute, specialising in the study of the political economy of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.Tupy has also published articles for the Heritage Foundation
• Martin Zelder – Analysis Group Economics. Martin Zelder is a senior associate at Analysis Group Economics, a Boston-based consulting firm. Previously, he was Director of Health Policy Research at the Fraser Institute

Democracy Institute connections to the Conservative movement

Social Network Analysis of the Democracy Institute and links to other conservative organisations.

Activities

The Democracy Institute’s research interests are within the following areas: Democratisation, education policy; electoral studies; the European Union; fiscal studies; health care; international relations ; obesity; and the regulation of risk. The main focus of its attention is on public health initiatives that are likely to interfere with the marketing activities of the tobacco, alcohol and food industries. The Institute is regularly consulted by the media as a body of experts in public health issues with Patrick Basham and John Luik frequently appearing as media commentators, 37 worldwide newspaper articles between 2006 and 2010 cite Basham and Luik as experts on public health issues.

Basham and Luik have published articles in 14 newspapers worldwide with Washington Times printing 6 articles, four of which express the Institute's pro-industry view on obesity. The Washington Times is owned by News World Communications Incorporated, which is under the control of the Unification Church, Reverend Sun Myung Moon – also referred to as the Moonies. The Washington Times is known for its conservative views as are eight of the newspapers that have published the work of Basham and Luik including The Australian (Fox Corporation), The Western Mail; The Irish Independent; New Zealand Herald; Philadelphia Inquirer; Star Tribune; Sunday Telegraph and the West Australian.

In terms of magazines and journals Basham and Luik have published articles in The American Spectator and the National Review which both promote conservative ideology. This again would suggest that the Democracy Institute adopts a partisan rather than independent perspective. Most prominently Basham and Luik have published articles on Spiked online.

On Obesity

In several articles attacking public health, Basham argues that four obesity claims are nothing but ‘myths’:

• That the world is obese (both adults and children)
• That being fat is a certain recipe for early death
• That fatness stems from the manufacturing and marketing practices of the food industry
• That we will lengthen our lives if only we eat less and lose weight.

According to Basham, there is no scientific evidence to support these myths. Basham claims that evidence produced by the The Scripps Research Institute in which ‘junk food’ was found to be addictive to rats due to the chemical reactions it causes in the brain are irrelevant to humans for the reason that it is been proved addictive to rats – not humans.

Basham and Luik recently published an article in spiked expressing their opinion concerning the San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s decision to approve a preliminary ban that would force fast food retailers to stop providing promotional toys with happy meals. According to the article the ban would give parents an opportunity to promote healthier meal options to their children. According Basham and Luik in the article, the proposal is presumptuous as it assumes that the fast food industry and its marketing techniques contribute towards childhood obesity. The evidence-less Happy Meal ban should remind us that the entire idea of fat children is largely a cultural construct, not a scientific one. A hundred years ago, today's penchant for thin children would have been considered a shocking instance of child neglect.The idea that children weighing over a certain amount are fat or obese has no scientific foundation, as the dividing line between fat and normal is purely arbitrary, representing nothing more than a public health bureaucrat's notion of where normal ends and fat begins.

More recently, Basham and Luik have criticised the NHS for proposing to prevent obese people from receiving certain operations due to lifestyle choices. Basham and Luik (2011) present the following evidence in the article,

“Van Baal and his colleagues estimated lifetime health costs for three groups of 1,000 people: the ‘healthy-living’ group (thin and non-smoking), obese people, and smokers. The researchers found that from age 20 to 56, obese people racked up the most expensive health costs. But because both the smokers and the obese people died sooner than the healthy group, it cost less to treat them in the long run.”

The purpose of the article that Basham and Luik refer to as evidence was to examine the medical cost of obesity before considering implications for obesity prevention in order to reduce costs. The article concludes that obesity prevention to some extent, reduces health costs.

On Equality

Wilkinson and Pickett's book The Spirit Level was criticised in a series of reports by the Taxpayers' Alliance, the Democracy Institute and the Policy Exchange. The criticisms from the Policy Exchange and the Taxpayers' Alliance were published just 24 hours apart.

Transparency

The organisation’s website gives no information about its major funders however in his book, ‘A Picture of Health? Why Graphic Warnings Don’t Work’ John Luik states that the writing of the book was, “made possible by funding provided by Imperial Tobacco Group PLC” indicating that the organisation has corporate associates.

In a more recent article, Basham and Luik state the following, “The Democracy Institute has not received any funding from the food, gambling, tobacco, alcohol, or indoor tanning industries to publish this paper. Nor have the authors received any funding from those industries to research and write this paper, the contents of which have not been shared with or reviewed by any individual or organisation affiliated with the food, gambling, tobacco, alcohol, or indoor tanning industries.”

Links

The Democracy Institute is a think tank with links to the Cato Institute and Spiked online.

Publications

• Patrick Basham, 'Sri Lanka needs carrot, not stick', The Guardian, 14 February 2010.
• Patrick Basham and John Luik, 'A bleary-eyed attitude to alcohol research', Spiked, 2 February 2010.
• Patrick Basham, 'President Obama’s Fork in the Road', Democracy Institute, 25 January 2010.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, The myth of an ‘obesity tsunami’, Spiked, 19 January 2010.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, 'In Defense of Santa', TownHall.com, 24 December 2009.
• Patrick Basham, 'Butt Out! How Philip Morris Burned Ted Kennedy, the FDA & the Anti-Tobacco Movement', Democracy Institute, 12 April 2009.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, Are Public Smoking Bans Necessary?, Democracy Institute, 17 December 2009.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, 'Can the UK Avert a Smoking Irish Failure?', Cato Institute, 29 October 2009.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, 'The City That Never Smokes', Spiked, 26 October 2009.
• DI Report, 'Alcohol Advertising Bans', Democracy Institute, September 20 September 2009.
• Patrick Basham, 'The Senator and the Symbol', National Review Online, 28 August 2009.
• Patrick Basham, 'Afghanistan's Democratic Debacle', Cato Institute, 21 August 2009.
• Patrick Basham, 'Displaying the truth about policymaking', Spiked, 13 August 2009.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, 'A fat doctor in the White House?', Democracy Institute, 29 July 2009.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, 'On discrimination against fat African-American women', Democracy Institute, 29 July 2009.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, 'Banning alcohol ads won’t cure alcoholism', Spiked, 21 July 2009.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, 'Turning fat people into social outcasts', Spiked, 30 June 2009.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, 'Smoke gets in the government’s eyes', Spiked, 23 June 2009.
• Patrick Basham, 'The unholy alliance between Philip Morris & the FDA', Democracy Institute, 5 June 2009.
• Patrick Basham and John Luik, 'Kicking the soda can: Hard truths about a soft drink tax', Democracy Institute, 3 June 2009.
• Patrick Basham, 'Keep FDA away from tobacco', Orange County Register, 3 June 2009.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, 'A display of ignorance over youth smoking', Spiked, 29 April 2009.
• Patrick Basham & John Luik, 'Women keep drinking', Spiked, 3 March 2009.

Affiliations

Spiked | Institute of Humane Studies | Pacific Research Institute | Mercatus Center | International Foundation for Electoral Systems | Cato Institute | Independent Institute | Social Affairs Unit.

Contact Details

London

Democracy Institute

2nd Floor

145-157 St John Street

London EC1V 4PY

0845 310 4144

www.democracyinstitute.org.uk

Email: info@democracyinstitute.org

Washington

Democracy Institute

2001 M St NW

Washington DC 20036

301 390 3711

www.democracyinstitute.org

Email: info@democracyinstitute.org