Atlas Network is pleased to recognize the 2020 finalists for the prestigious Templeton Freedom Award:

• Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (Indonesia)
• Centre for Public Policy Research (India)
• The Fraser Institute (Canada)
• IDEAS Labs (Costa Rica)
• The Mercatus Center (U.S.)
• The Property and Environment Research Center (U.S.) 

The winner of the 2020 Templeton Freedom Award, which is generously sponsored by the Templeton Religion Trust, will be announced live at Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner 2020. You can register to attend this premier, interactive virtual event here.

Since gaining independence in 1945, Indonesia’s government has pursued a harmful policy of food self-sufficiency. These laws have increased the cost of food, resulting in widespread malnutrition among Indonesia’s low-income population. Center for Indonesian Policy Studies’ Hak MakMur campaign focused on making nutritious food widely available for the country’s poor by reducing import restrictions on beef, corn, rice, and other food products. The net result was an estimated savings benefit of US$1.9 billion for vulnerable Indonesian households between 2016 and 2019.

The Kerala Shops & Establishments Act regulates labor standards and restrictions for all commercial establishments in Kerala, India. In this state of nearly 35 million people, the law controls everything from which days and for how many hours a shop can operate to when women can work. In an effort to increase employment opportunities in Kerala and combat widespread institutionalized discrimination against women, CPPR conducted research and educated the public on the costs of these restrictions, and the state's government listened by implementing significant changes to the law that (1) enables shops to remain open 24/7, (2) eliminates hour restrictions for women, and (3) establishes an online business registration platform. 

Historically, Alberta has been a leader in sound economic governance within Canada. However in recent years, that standing has declined due to poor public policy from across the political spectrum. To stem the tide, the Fraser Institute launched the Alberta Prosperity Initiative, which sought to underscore the extent to which Alberta’s problems were caused by economic mismanagement. Following the provincial election of 2019, the government that came to power immediately took up nine of Fraser’s recommended policies, including committing to balance the budget, allowing for increased private competition in education and healthcare, and regulatory and tax reform.

More than one million Costa Ricans live in poverty, so how do its leaders justify the “luxury pensions” of a few thousand people who receive, on average, nearly US$4,500 per month? The recipients of these payments—dubbed “Ticos Con Coronas” by the Costa Rican think tank IDEAS Labs—have found themselves in the spotlight of public ire thanks to IDEAS’ national awareness campaign to eliminate these special privileges. In response to the growing calls for reform, a law passed unanimously in December 2019 to cut payments for over 4,000 Ticos con Coronas.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a series of avoidable flaws in the American healthcare system, shedding light on the importance of high-quality, timely care during a crisis. Across the United States, 37 state governments have certificate of need laws. The Mercatus Center at George Mason University’s state-by-state analysis offered recommendations for practical and timely reform and so far has led to the successful rollback of certificate of need regulations in Florida—with legislative action pending in Michigan and several other states.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 has helped to prevent 99 percent of listed species from going extinct, however, only two percent have recovered their populations. In 2017, the Property and Environment Research Center, or PERC, launched its “Recovering Endangered Species” project, which leveraged market-based incentives in conservation efforts as a means to improve this sorry track record. PERC led a diverse coalition and robust media campaign to contextualize the need for reform, and its three major recommendations have all been adopted by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

On a new episode of the AtlasNexus podcast, host Vale Sloane speaks with the COO of Advocata Institute, Dhananath Fernando, about recent elections in Sri Lanka, its near complete re-opening post-pandemic, and how Advocata continues to communicate the power of a free and open society in the South Asian country. Other recent episodes feature Patrick Mardini on Lebanon’s crossroads; and Fred McMahon on what it actually means for a society to be economically free and how that influences the whole dynamic of a society.

In Argentina, excessively high tax rates have made it difficult for citizens to pay their taxes on time. Asociación Argentina de Contribuyentes (AAC) drafted a bill that would recognize and reward compliant taxpayers. Their idea was picked up and quickly passed in the Senate to become law. Now, compliant taxpayers are subject to receive a 50 percent tax break, a move that AAC hopes will lower the tax burden for millions of Argentines while encouraging timely tax payments.

Atlas Network CEO Brad Lips sat down with Free the People's Matt Kibbe to discuss his new monograph,The Freedom Movement: Its Past, Present, and Future; the need to passionately speak out against injustice; and the ways that classical liberals can better communicate their message of freedom, tolerance, and human dignity to a broader audience.