The Free Foundation is a think tank

Think tank

A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

 within The People of Freedom

The People of Freedom

The People of Freedom is a centre-right political party in Italy. With the Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties of the current Italian party system....

, a political party in Italy.

Although most of its leading members are former members of the Italian Socialist Party

Italian Socialist Party

The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...

 and thus have social-democratic

Social democracy

Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...

 roots, the group expresses liberal

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 and libertarian

Libertarianism

Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...

 stances. The core proposals of the association are free market

Free market

A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...

, small government

Small government

A Small government is one which minimizes its own activities. It is a concept important to classical liberalism and libertarianism.-In Hong Kong:...

, subsidiarity

Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity is an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which...

, political

Federalism

Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...

 and fiscal federalism

Fiscal federalism

As a subfield of public economics, fiscal federalism is concerned with "understanding which functions and instruments are best centralized and which are best placed in the sphere of decentralized levels of government"...

.

The Foundation was launched in 2000 by Renato Brunetta

Renato Brunetta

Renato Brunetta is an Italian economist and politician and, as of May 2008, a minister in the Berlusconi government.He is a former member of the Italian Socialist Party, Member of the European Parliament for the North-East from 2004 to 2009 with the Forza Italia, part of the European People's...

, minister of Public Administration in Berlusconi IV Cabinet

Berlusconi IV Cabinet

Berlusconi IV Cabinet has been the cabinet of the government of Italy from 8 May 2008 to 16 November 2011.As of July 2011, it was composed of 24 ministers, 4 deputy ministers and 39 under-secretaries, for a total of 67 members.-Sources:*...

, and Franco Frattini, minister of Foreign Affairs. Other leading members are Giuliano Cazzola, Giorgio Stracquadanio

Giorgio Stracquadanio

Giorgio Stracquadanio is an Italian politician and journalist.He began his political careers in the 1980s as activist of the Radical Party in Milan with the municipal councillor Tiziana Maiolo....

, Arturo Diaconale and Davide Giacalone. The group regularly issues many books in collaboration with Libero

Libero (newspaper)

Libero is an Italian Right-wing newspaper, published in Milan, Italy, founded by the journalist Vittorio Feltri and edited by Maurizio Belpietro....

and Il Giornale

Il Giornale

il Giornale is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan, Italy.-History:The newspaper was planned in 1972 by the journalist Indro Montanelli, together with the colleague Enzo Bettiza, after some disagreements with the new pro-left editorial line adopted by the newspaper Corriere della Sera,...

, two leading centre-right newspapers, edited by Maurizio Belpietro

Maurizio Belpietro

Maurizio Belpietro is an Italian journalist and television presenter.-Biography:Belpietro was born in Castenedolo, near Brescia, but he grew up in the town of Palazzolo sull'Oglio. He started his career as a journalist writing for the local newspaper Bresciaoggi in 1975...

 and Vittorio Feltri

Vittorio Feltri

Vittorio Feltri is an Italian journalist and editor in chief.-Biography:Feltri was born in Bergamo, Italy. He started his career as journalist in 1962, writing film reviews for the local newspaper L'Eco di Bergamo. In 1977 he moved to the Corriere della Sera.In 1993 Feltri refused the offer of...

respectively.

External links

• Official website