The Center of the American Experiment is a conservative 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...

 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...

 in Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, USA.

Overview

The Center of the American Experiment was founded in 1990. Its founder and President is Michael Pearlstein, a former Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 appointee

Appointee

An appointee may be one of the following:*A member who is appointed to a position or office is called an appointee. In law, such a term is applied to one who is granted power of appointment of property....

. Annette Meeks

Annette Meeks

Annette Meeks is a Minnesota Republican politician, a member of the state's Metropolitan Council, and was the 2010 endorsed Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, running with gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer.-Biography:...

 used to serve as its CEO. It has received grants

Grant (money)

Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...

 from the Bradley Foundation

Bradley Foundation

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a conservative foundation with about half a billion US dollars in assets. According to the Bradley Foundation 1998 Annual Report, it gives away more than $30 million per year...

 and the John M. Olin Foundation

John M. Olin Foundation

John M. Olin Foundation was a grant-making foundation established in 1953 by John M. Olin, president of the Olin Industries chemical and munitions manufacturing businesses. Unlike most non-profit foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation was charged to spend all of its assets within a generation of...

.

Members include Linda Chavez

Linda Chavez

Linda Chavez is an American author, commentator, and radio talk show host. She is also a Fox News analyst, Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, has a syndicated column that appears in newspapers nationwide each week, and sits on the Board of Directors of two Fortune 1000 companies:...

, Steven F. Hayward

Steven F. Hayward

Steven F. Hayward is an American author, political commentator, and policy scholar. He argues for libertarian and conservative viewpoints in his writings. He writes frequently on the topics of environmentalism, law, economics, and public policy.-Career:...

, John H. Hinderaker

John H. Hinderaker

John 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...

, Mark Kennedy, Heather Mac Donald

Heather Mac Donald

Heather Lynn Mac Donald is an American political commentator and thinker notable for her advocacy of secular conservatism. She has advocated her positions on numerous subjects including crime prevention, immigration reform, academia, the art world, and politics. She is a prolific essayist...

, Michael Novak

Michael Novak

Michael Novak is an American Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. The author of more than twenty-five books on the philosophy and theology of culture, Novak is most widely known for his book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism...

, Marvin Olasky

Marvin Olasky

Marvin Olasky is editor-in-chief of WORLD Magazine, the author of more than 20 books, including The Tragedy of American Compassion, and Distinguished Chair in Journalism and Public Policy at Patrick Henry College...

, Allen I. Olson

Allen I. Olson

Allen Ingvar Olson is a Republican politician and attorney who served as the 28th Governor of North Dakota from 1981 to 1985. He defeated incumbent Arthur A. Link in the 1980 race for governor and served one term....

, Tim Penny

Tim Penny

Timothy Joe "Tim" Penny , is an American politician from Minnesota. Penny was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor member of the United States House of Representatives, 1983–1995, representing Minnesota's 1st congressional district in the 98th, 99th, 100th, 101st, 102nd and 103rd congresses.-Early life:Penny...

, Christina Hoff Sommers

Christina Hoff Sommers

Christina Hoff Sommers is an American author and former philosophy professor who is known for her critique of late 20th century feminism, and her writings about feminism in contemporary American culture...

, Ken Starr, Shelby Steele

Shelby Steele

-Awards:*National Book Critics Circle Award in the general non-fiction category for the book The Content of Our Character.*Emmy and Writers Guild Awards for his 1991 Frontline documentary film Seven Days in Bensonhurst.-External links:**...

, and Abigail Thernstrom

Abigail Thernstrom

Abigail Thernstrom, a conservative political scientist, is a former Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York, a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and vice chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. She received her Ph.D...

. Katherine Kersten

Katherine Kersten

Katherine Kersten is a conservative columnist who writes for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.-Background:Kersten, a graduate of Notre Dame and Yale universities, began her career as a financial analyst for a Chicago bank. Subsequently, she worked as a budget planner for the University of...

 is a Senior Fellow. Guests have also included Charles Krauthammer

Charles Krauthammer

Charles Krauthammer, MD is an American Pulitzer Prize–winning syndicated columnist, political commentator, and physician. His weekly column appears in The Washington Post and is syndicated to more than 275 newspapers and media outlets. He is a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and The New...

.

They have campaigned for school vouchers. They also expressed concern about the raunchiness of television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 for children. They are opposed to affirmative action

Affirmative action

Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...

, especially in academia

Academia

Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...

. They have been credited for playing a major role in empowering conservatives in Minnesota.