In the 1960s Bill Baroody Sr, president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) coined a phrase that became famous: “the competition of ideas is fundamental to a free society.” AEI and other conservative think-tanks were setting out to develop an alternative set of ideas that were intended to challenge the liberal orthodoxy that dominated policy debates in Washington and on college campuses throughout the United States. AEI and many of the think-tanks in Washington ultimately achieved their objective through thoughtful and independent analysis of policy issues.