Excerpted from SCPJ/HooverAndAcademicFreedom

Hoover's Mission and Philosophy

We claim that the Hoover Institution, distinct from the projects of its individual fellows, has a political bias. Our primary concern is therefore with how the Institution acts as an institution. Let's look, then, at the Hoover mission statement:

The Hoover Institution's mission is defined, in part, by the 1959 statement by its founder, Herbert Hoover that calls for safeguarding "[the American] system where the Federal Government should undertake no governmental, social or economic action, except where local government, or the people, cannot undertake it for themselves." The Institution has reformulated Mr. Hoover's vision thus: "By collecting knowledge, generating ideas, and disseminating both, our Institution seeks to secure and safeguard peace, improve the human condition, and limit government intrusion into the lives of individuals."

This last phrase has defined the character of the institution to a great extent, and this is clear from how the institution describes itself. Hoover's Annual Report 2000 says:

"Evaluating and advancing sensible market-based solutions to public policy problems is an underpinning of the philosophy of Hoover scholars, who will continue to advance the principles of free enterprise and economic freedom for decades to come" ("Founding Principle: Private Enterprise", from the Introduction to Annual Report 2000).

This is from a section that describes the founding principles of the institution.

The institutional character demonstrated in the above passage influences the Institute's sponsored research initiatives, which are proposed by the director and approved by the executive committee. These initiatives are, according to the Institution's web-site, reflections of the Institute's overarching goals. Here, we see that the institution's academic agenda is linked to non-academic goals. For instance, the initiative Property Rights, the Rule of Law, and Economic Performance", intends "to emphasize the fundamental importance of property rights to the life and health of a free society." The Institution sponsored research initiative "The End of Communism" hopes, in the report's words, "to ensure that mankind will not again be tempted by the false utopian promises of this malignant ideology [of communism]" (Introduction to Annual Report 2000).