|
At The Edmund Burke Institute we welcome independent thought. But we are not impartial. We believe that the principled case freedom of choice and enterprise need to be made more clearly in Ireland. We favour the liberalisation of markets and privatisation. We believe that the decisions which mould life in Ireland, about education, about health care, about culture, about charity, and about investment should be taken by individuals who have a closer knowledge of their circumstances than public representatives however well intentioned .
We believe that Ireland needs an institution which advances a wide ranging debate about the values that predominate in our society and about the role of the state in our life. In fulfilling this role The Edmund Burke Institute takes its vocation as educational charity seriously and adheres to academic honesty and objective analysis. Although the study of economic problems is at the core of The Institute's activities we also welcome contributions from, for example, historians and sociologists as they too can play an important part in advancing The Institute's objectives.
While The Institute unashamedly promotes the value of the market as an economic mechanism it does not intend to suggest that the case for the market is simply that it is more efficient than the alternatives. As indicated elsewhere recent improvements in economic policy in Ireland could easily be reversed- see background. To be permanent such changes need to be grounded in an understanding that the networks of voluntary exchange and co-operation which characterize free markets are more consonant with the commonly held and traditional values of our society than the alternatives. Consequently we aim to foster a healthy scepticism towards the idea that the states involvement in so much of our economic or cultural life is either necessary or has any moral foundation- see our activities. Equally, we will be arguing that the market is not only the most humane way of organizing economic activity, but that it also offers the only way of ensuring the continued freedom of our citizens.
Nevertheless, we believe that the state has a critical and unique role. Only the state can uphold the rule of law. And only the law can uphold the rights of the citizens. Moreover for the foreseeable future the state will have a responsibility to provide a welfare safety net for those unable to provide for themselves. There is nothing in either our analysis or in our general approach which conflicts with the idea that the state has a role in these areas. But we note that such provision can only properly be made against a background of prosperity, and this can only be achieved through free markets and a competitive level of taxation.
|
