Agenda Austria

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Agenda Austria, Association for Scientific Dialogue and Social Renewal
purpose Economic research
Chair: Christoph Kraus
Executive Director: Franz Schellhorn
Establishment date: 1st February 2013
Seat : Türkenstrasse 25/1/3 / 9-10, A-1090 Vienna
Website: http://www.agenda-austria.at/

Agenda Austria, Association for Scientific Dialogue and Social Renewal (in short: Agenda Austria ) is an economically liberal Austrian think tank founded as an association in 2013 . Members and financiers are exclusively commercial enterprises and wealthy private individuals.

Founding history

The idea for the establishment comes from Christoph Kraus, the former head of Kathrein Privatbank , Secretary General of the Association of Austrian Private Foundations and member of the economically liberal Mont Pelerin Society founded by the economist Friedrich August von Hayek . The Swiss Avenir Suisse served as a model .

With Veit Sorger , President of the Association of Austrian Private Foundations and former President of the Federation of Austrian Industries , as a fundraiser , Kraus was looking for supportive like-minded people for the start-up capital of one million euros.

The Billa founder and real estate magnate Karl Wlaschek made the office in the centrally located Schottengasse available for three years free of charge.

management

The head is the former head of the business editor of the daily newspaper Die Presse , Franz Schellhorn. The chairman of the association is the initiator Christoph Kraus and Veit Sorger is the president of the senate, which corresponds to a quasi- supervisory board . The head of the scientific advisory board is the economist and FDP politician Karl-Heinz Paqué .

financing

The association is financed exclusively by the members. These are commercial enterprises (including REWE , Raiffeisen Zentralbank , Erste Bank , Porr , Miba AG , Mondi , Mayr-Melnhof Karton and Umdasch ) and individuals who commit themselves to support the agenda for three years. Private individuals support with at least 10,000 euros annually, companies with at least 20,000 euros annually.

It has an annual budget of 1.2 million euros and is behind the Austrian Institute for Economic Research (WIFO) with an annual budget of 12.5 million euros and the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) (9.3 million euros) financially the third largest Austrian think tank, whereby IHS and WIFO earn more than half of their budgets from public sources such as the National Bank, ministries and social partners.

Self-presentation

aims

According to its own information, the association was founded with the aim of “ opening up Austria in socio-political and economic matters and finding new answers to the challenges the country is facing.” The task is to come up with scientifically based reform proposals from a liberal, market-economy perspective to create political concepts on a scientific basis and to mediate between economic theories and real politics. Agenda Austria advocates reforms in what they consider to be an “unfinanced” pension system. Representatives of the think tank are publicly calling for a reduction in wage and income tax. As opponents of property and inheritance taxes, they believe that such reforms should be financed through spending cuts such as subsidies.

philosophy

According to Christoph Kraus, chairman and co-founder of Agenda Austria , the organization is based on the Austrian school around Hayek and Ludwig von Mises , with “freedom and individualism” given as basic values.

The association does not accept any external research contracts, which, according to its own statements, has the advantage that it is possible to work with an open mind and the results “do not have to be coordinated with anyone”. The financiers have undertaken not to exert any influence on the content.

literature

  • Pühringer / Stelzer-Orthofer: Neoliberal Think Tanks as (New) Actors in Austrian Sociopolitical Discourses, ICAE Working Paper Series, No. 44, January 2016.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Dispute of the Economists". (No longer available online.) In: agenda-austria.at . Agenda Austria, 2014, archived from the original on July 22, 2015 ; Retrieved on July 18, 2015 (a series of the Wiener Zeitung ).
  2. ↑ a b sponsorship group. In: agenda-austria.at . Agenda Austria, accessed on July 18, 2015 (as of May 11, 2015).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Kurier - think tank of millionaires - companies and wealthy private individuals can afford a liberal institute . Article from January 27, 2013, accessed on February 7, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b Board of Directors. In: stiftungsverband.at . Association of Austrian Private Foundations, accessed on August 1, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Dominik Geppert : Thatcher's Conservative Revolution: The Change of Direction of the British Tories (1975-1979) . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2002, ISBN 978-3-486-56661-1 , p. 231 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ↑ Kurier: Schellhorn: "Of course we have a budget gap" . Article dated December 7, 2013, accessed February 26, 2015.
  7. ↑ organs. (No longer available online.) In: agenda-austria.at . Agenda Austria, archived from the original on August 1, 2015 ; accessed on August 1, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.agenda-austria.at
  8. ↑ format.at - The opinion makers' sponsors ( Memento from February 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Article dated December 5, 2014, accessed February 6, 2015.
  9. ↑ a b Clemens Neuhol: New Think Tank: One million for the liberal thought revolution. In: wienerzeitung.at . Wiener Zeitung , December 26, 2012, accessed on July 18, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Mission Statement. In: agenda-austria.at . Agenda Austria, accessed on July 18, 2015 .
  11. ↑ How much tax do you save? In: agenda-austria.at . Agenda Austria, accessed on July 18, 2015 .
  12. ^ "The government gets money from the citizen". In: oe1.orf.at . Österreichischer Rundfunk , April 8, 2014, accessed on July 18, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Think tank: Voice for the market economy. In: diepresse.com . August 23, 2013, accessed July 18, 2015 .
  14. ↑ In the SWS-Rundschau , in which the article also appeared (issue 1/2016), a "replica of the Think Tank Agenda Austria" appeared on the article mentioned: Köppl-Turyna, Mayrbäurl, Schneider: Not guided by scientific knowledge. SWS-Rundschau 2/2016, pp. 266–273.