The Power of Ideas: The Heritage Foundation at 25 Years

This look inside one of Washington's think tanks--an authorized history of the conservative Heritage Foundation published to coincide with its 25th anniversary--documents its role in hatching ideas that have affected the political landscape, e.g., privatizing government services, designating inner-city enterprise zones, formulating domestic antipoverty programs based on less government intervention and greater individual responsibility. The foundation's perceived influence in shaping Ronald Reagan's foreign policy and economic program, its impact on U.S. policy toward the United Nations and its role in President Clinton's welfare-reform legislation are aired, as are Heritage's disputes with President Bush. The book also lays out in detail Heritage's consumer-choice plan for health-care reform. Edwards, a professor of politics at Catholic University of America, has written an encomium of the foundation's fund-raising, networking, media outreach and idea-generation. Photos. (Feb.)