The Claremont Institute
Encyclopedia
The Claremont Institute is a conservative
think tank
based in Claremont, California
. The mission of the Claremont Institute is "to restore the principles of the American founding fathers to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life", and to "remake American politics" as established by the founders in the U.S. Declaration of Independence
.
To this end, the institute seeks to establish a limited and accountable government that respects natural law
, private property
, promotes a stable family life, and maintains a strong national defense. The Institute's work is national in scope, but it also gives a special emphasis to the problems of California, where it is based.
, a professor emeritus at Claremont McKenna College
and the Claremont Graduate University
, although the Institute has no affiliation with any of the Claremont Colleges
.
The institute came to prominence under the leadership of Larry P. Arnn
, who was its president from 1985 until 2000, when he became the twelfth president of Hillsdale College
. The institute is now led by ballistic missile expert, Brian T. Kennedy
, along with chairman of the board, Bruce Sanborn.
Today, approximately 20 staff members now coordinate conferences, lecture series, and other projects. The institute also publishes the Claremont Review of Books
, a quarterly journal of political thought and statesmanship, as well as other books and publications, including reprints of Jaffa's works.
and Senior Fellow at the Institute, describes the organization as follows:
The institute's guiding text is the Declaration of Independence
, and especially its central proposition that "all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights."
Atypical for a U.S. conservative organization, members the Claremont Institute tends to reject the constitutional philosophy of strict constructionism
and often publishes material that is critical of conservative strict constructionists such as Robert Bork
, William Rehnquist
, and Antonin Scalia
. This is consistent with the institute's emphasis on the principles of the Declaration of Independence
as distinct from the U.S. Constitution.
According to some Institute writers, their legal philosophy is closer to that of Clarence Thomas
, who has said the institute has "played a significant role in my own education"; supporters include columnist William Rusher, British historian Sir Martin Gilbert
, Wheel of Fortune
host Pat Sajak
, Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr.
, and Sonny Bono
.
Many of the Institute's scholars are students of the teachings of Leo Strauss
, including Jaffa, who studied with Strauss. The institute's members has great admiration for the statesmanship of America's founding fathers as well as that of Abraham Lincoln
and Winston Churchill
.
, a quarterly journal of political thought and statesmanship founded in 2000. The CRB is edited by prominent scholar and institute mainstay Charles R. Kesler
and features regular columns by Boston College faculty member Martha Bayles, as well as novelist and journalist Mark Helprin
.
Among the 60 alumni of the program are senior staff members of U.S. Representatives and Senators, White House speech writers, legal counsel and senior advisors in the U.S. Departments of Justice and State, as well as political editorialists for the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard.
Notable alumni of the Lincoln Fellows program include California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore
, political commentator Carol Platt Liebau
, editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez
, and Delaware politician Christine O'Donnell
.
received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Medallion from the Claremont Institute in 2004.
(LvMI) is one of Claremont's most frequent sparring partners among conservative think tanks. Though both hold similar positions on many moral and economic issues in general, the two are substantially different in other aspects of their respective political philosophies.
The two differ radically in their opinions about Abraham Lincoln
and have engaged debates about whether Lincoln should be embraced or shunned by conservatives. This controversy over Lincoln's significance to conservatives predates both think tanks, and encompasses Jaffa's debates on the subject with National Review
editor Frank Meyer and scholar M.E. Bradford. In 2002, Jaffa debated Thomas DiLorenzo
, a Senior Fellow at the LvMI on the merits of Lincoln's statesmanship during the American Civil War
.
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
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...
based in Claremont, California
Claremont, California
Claremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...
. The mission of the Claremont Institute is "to restore the principles of the American founding fathers to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life", and to "remake American politics" as established by the founders in the U.S. Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
.
To this end, the institute seeks to establish a limited and accountable government that respects natural law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
, private property
Private property
Private property is the right of persons and firms to obtain, own, control, employ, dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community or government rather than by...
, promotes a stable family life, and maintains a strong national defense. The Institute's work is national in scope, but it also gives a special emphasis to the problems of California, where it is based.
History
The institute was founded in 1979 by four students of Harry V. JaffaHarry V. Jaffa
Harry V. Jaffa is Professor Emeritus at Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University and a distinguished fellow of the Claremont Institute. He has written on Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill, Leo Strauss, American constitutionalism...
, a professor emeritus at Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
and the Claremont Graduate University
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont Graduate University is a private, all-graduate research university located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...
, although the Institute has no affiliation with any of the Claremont Colleges
Claremont Colleges
The Claremont Colleges are a prestigious American consortium of five undergraduate and two graduate schools of higher education located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...
.
The institute came to prominence under the leadership of Larry P. Arnn
Larry P. Arnn
Larry P. Arnn has served as the twelfth president of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, United States since May 2000.-Biography:Born in Pocahontas, Arkansas, Arnn received his B.A. in Political Science and Accounting from Arkansas State University. He earned graduate degrees in Government...
, who was its president from 1985 until 2000, when he became the twelfth president of Hillsdale College
Hillsdale College
Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, United States, is a co-educational liberal arts college known for being the first American college to prohibit in its charter all discrimination based on race, religion, or sex; its refusal of government funding; and its monthly publication, Imprimis...
. The institute is now led by ballistic missile expert, Brian T. Kennedy
Brian T. Kennedy
Brian T. Kennedy is the current President of the Claremont Institute, an organization that seeks to promote the restoration of "the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life." Kennedy has been with the Claremont Institute since 1989 and its...
, along with chairman of the board, Bruce Sanborn.
Today, approximately 20 staff members now coordinate conferences, lecture series, and other projects. The institute also publishes the Claremont Review of Books
Claremont Review of Books
The Claremont Review of Books is a quarterly review of politics and statesmanship published by the Claremont Institute. Many consider it a conservative intellectual answer to the liberal New York Review of Books...
, a quarterly journal of political thought and statesmanship, as well as other books and publications, including reprints of Jaffa's works.
Philosophy
Charles Kesler, professor at Claremont McKenna CollegeClaremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
and Senior Fellow at the Institute, describes the organization as follows:
Some conservatives start, as it were, from Edmund BurkeEdmund BurkeEdmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
; others from Friedrich HayekFriedrich HayekFriedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
. While we respect both thinkers and their schools of thought, we begin instead from America, the American political tradition in all its genius and profundity, and the relation of our tradition to revealed wisdom and to what the elderly Jefferson once called, rather insouciantly, "the elementary books of public right, as AristotleAristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, CiceroCiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, LockeJohn LockeJohn Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
, Sidney, etc." We think conservatism should take its bearings from the founders' statesmanship, our citizens' loyalty to the Declaration and Constitution, and the scenes, both tender and proud, of our national history. This kind of approach clears the air. It concentrates the mind. It engages and informs the ordinary citizen's patriotism. And it introduces a new, sharper view of liberalism as descended not from the French RevolutionFrench RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, nor (God forbid) Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, but from that movement which, a century ago, criticized George Washington's and Lincoln's Constitution as outmoded and, as we'd say today, racist, sexist, and antidemocratic. The Progressives broke with the old Constitution and its postulates, and set out to make a new, living constitution and a new, unlimited state, and the Obama Administration's programs are merely the latest, and worst, installment of that purported evolution.
The institute's guiding text is the Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
, and especially its central proposition that "all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights."
Atypical for a U.S. conservative organization, members the Claremont Institute tends to reject the constitutional philosophy of strict constructionism
Strict constructionism
In the United States, Strict constructionism refers to a particular legal philosophy of judicial interpretation that limits or restricts judicial interpretation. The phrase is also commonly used more loosely as a generic term for conservatism among the judiciary.- Strict sense of the term :Strict...
and often publishes material that is critical of conservative strict constructionists such as Robert Bork
Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, Acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
, William Rehnquist
William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer, jurist, and political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States...
, and Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice...
. This is consistent with the institute's emphasis on the principles of the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
as distinct from the U.S. Constitution.
According to some Institute writers, their legal philosophy is closer to that of Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court....
, who has said the institute has "played a significant role in my own education"; supporters include columnist William Rusher, British historian Sir Martin Gilbert
Martin Gilbert
Sir Martin John Gilbert, CBE, PC is a British historian and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history...
, Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
host Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak is a television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.-Early life:...
, Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr.
Howard Ahmanson, Jr.
Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr. is an heir of the Home Savings bank fortune built by his father Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Sr.. Ahmanson Jr. is a multi-millionaire philanthropist and financier of many Christian conservative cultural, religious and political causes.- Biography :Ahmanson is the son...
, and Sonny Bono
Sonny Bono
Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American recording artist, record producer, actor, and politician whose career spanned over three decades.-Early life:...
.
Many of the Institute's scholars are students of the teachings of Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...
, including Jaffa, who studied with Strauss. The institute's members has great admiration for the statesmanship of America's founding fathers as well as that of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
and Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
.
Notable staff and fellows
- William J. Bennett (Washington Fellow)
- Mark HelprinMark HelprinMark Helprin is an American novelist, journalist, and conservative commentator.-Background:Helprin was raised on the Hudson River and in the British West Indies, and holds degrees from Harvard College and Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His postgraduate work was done at Princeton...
(Senior Fellow) - Harry V. JaffaHarry V. JaffaHarry V. Jaffa is Professor Emeritus at Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University and a distinguished fellow of the Claremont Institute. He has written on Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill, Leo Strauss, American constitutionalism...
(Distinguished Fellow) - John H. HinderakerJohn H. HinderakerJohn H. Hinderaker is a conservative American lawyer and a blogger at the Power Line weblog, as well as a fellow at the Claremont Institute. He is a 1971 graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and received a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1974...
(Institute Fellow) - Scott W. JohnsonScott W. JohnsonScott W. Johnson is an American lawyer, executive and a blogger at Power Line.- Legal and business career :Johnson was born in Fargo, North Dakota to a Jewish family...
(Institute Fellow) - Paul MirengoffPaul MirengoffPaul Mirengoff is an attorney and former blogger at the Power Line weblog.Mirengoff graduated from Dartmouth College in 1971, and from Stanford Law School in 1974. He is currently practicing law in Washington D.C. as a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. For several years, he worked for...
(Institute Fellow) - William A. RusherWilliam A. RusherWilliam Allen Rusher was an American lawyer, author, activist, speaker, debater, and conservative syndicated columnist. He was one of the founders of the conservative movement and was one of its most prominent spokesmen for thirty years.- Early life :Rusher was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1923...
(Distinguished Fellow) - Charles R. KeslerCharles R. KeslerCharles R. Kesler is professor of Government/Political Science at Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University. He has a Ph.D in Government from Harvard University, from which he received his AB degree in 1978. He is editor of the Claremont Review of Books, and the author of Keeping...
(Senior Fellow) - Michael M. Uhlmann
- Brian T. KennedyBrian T. KennedyBrian T. Kennedy is the current President of the Claremont Institute, an organization that seeks to promote the restoration of "the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life." Kennedy has been with the Claremont Institute since 1989 and its...
(President of the Institute)
Publications
The institute publishes the Claremont Review of BooksClaremont Review of Books
The Claremont Review of Books is a quarterly review of politics and statesmanship published by the Claremont Institute. Many consider it a conservative intellectual answer to the liberal New York Review of Books...
, a quarterly journal of political thought and statesmanship founded in 2000. The CRB is edited by prominent scholar and institute mainstay Charles R. Kesler
Charles R. Kesler
Charles R. Kesler is professor of Government/Political Science at Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University. He has a Ph.D in Government from Harvard University, from which he received his AB degree in 1978. He is editor of the Claremont Review of Books, and the author of Keeping...
and features regular columns by Boston College faculty member Martha Bayles, as well as novelist and journalist Mark Helprin
Mark Helprin
Mark Helprin is an American novelist, journalist, and conservative commentator.-Background:Helprin was raised on the Hudson River and in the British West Indies, and holds degrees from Harvard College and Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His postgraduate work was done at Princeton...
.
Publius Fellows program
The Publius program is the institute's oldest fellowship program. Since 1979, the institute has hosted a number of young conservatives for seminars and symposia on American politics and political thought. Publius fellows, usually college seniors, recent college graduates, and graduate students, meet with the institute's fellows and other distinguished scholars for several weeks during the summer.Lincoln Fellows program
Since 1996, the internship has offered fellowships to young professionals serving elected officials or appointed policy-makers in the federal government, as well as staff members of national political parties and non-profit institutions that research and publish on public policy and constitutional issues.Among the 60 alumni of the program are senior staff members of U.S. Representatives and Senators, White House speech writers, legal counsel and senior advisors in the U.S. Departments of Justice and State, as well as political editorialists for the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard.
Notable alumni of the Lincoln Fellows program include California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore
Chuck DeVore
Charles S. "Chuck" DeVore is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010 and represented the 70th District, which includes portions of Orange County...
, political commentator Carol Platt Liebau
Carol Platt Liebau
Carol Platt Liebau is an attorney, political analyst and social conservative commentator based near Los Angeles. Her book Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls was published by Hachette Book Group in 2007...
, editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez
Michael Ramirez
Michael Patrick Ramirez is a two-time American Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist. His cartoons typically present conservative viewpoints....
, and Delaware politician Christine O'Donnell
Christine O'Donnell
Christine Therese O'Donnell is an American Republican Party politician who founded two advocacy organizations. She has been an advocate for nonprofit clients and nonprofit causes for nearly 20 years. A Tea Party favorite, and with strong financial support from the Tea Party movement, she defeated...
.
Internship program
The institute also hosts a number of college students each year as summer interns. Interns work on a number of writing and research projects, and attend academic seminars and lectures.Ronald Reagan Freedom Medallion
2010 Nevada Senate candidate Sharron AngleSharron Angle
Sharron Elaine Angle is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Nevada Assembly from 1999 to 2007. She ran unsuccessfully as the 2010 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Nevada, garnering 45 percent of the vote...
received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Medallion from the Claremont Institute in 2004.
Debates with Ludwig von Mises Institute
The Ludwig von Mises InstituteLudwig von Mises Institute
The Ludwig von Mises Institute , based in Auburn, Alabama, is a libertarian academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy. Its scholarship is inspired by the work of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises...
(LvMI) is one of Claremont's most frequent sparring partners among conservative think tanks. Though both hold similar positions on many moral and economic issues in general, the two are substantially different in other aspects of their respective political philosophies.
The two differ radically in their opinions about Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
and have engaged debates about whether Lincoln should be embraced or shunned by conservatives. This controversy over Lincoln's significance to conservatives predates both think tanks, and encompasses Jaffa's debates on the subject with National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
editor Frank Meyer and scholar M.E. Bradford. In 2002, Jaffa debated Thomas DiLorenzo
Thomas DiLorenzo
Thomas James DiLorenzo is an American economics professor at Loyola University Maryland. He is an adherent of the Austrian School of Economics. He is a senior faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and an associated scholar of the Abbeville Institute...
, a Senior Fellow at the LvMI on the merits of Lincoln's statesmanship during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.