Cato Institute

The Cato Institute is a non-profit public policy research foundation with strong libertarian leanings headquartered in Washington, D.C.. It is named after Cato's Letters[?], a series of libertarian pamphlets that helped lay the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution. Founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane[?], its mission is "to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace" by seeking greater involvement of the "lay public in questions of public policy and the role of government".

Mike Huben[1] (http://world.std.com/~mhuben/index.html) criticizes it as an "astroturf organization", i.e. one that claims to represent grass-roots opinion but in fact sets its own agenda.