The Edmund Burke Foundation () is a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

organization based in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

History

The Edmund Burke Foundation was founded in 2000 by a group of young

conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

, including professor

Andreas Kinneging Andreas Antonius Maria Kinneging (born 26 February 1962 in Eindhoven) is Professor of Legal Philosophy at the University of Leiden, and a conservative philosopher in the Netherlands. Background Kinneging was raised in a Catholic family in the D ...

and journalist

Bart Jan Spruyt Dr. Bastian Jan "Bart Jan" Spruyt (born 29 January 1964, in Ridderkerk) is a Dutch historian, journalist and conservatism, conservative writer. He is opinion editor for CNE.news. Early life and education Spruyt grew up in Rotterdam, Netherlands, ...

, dissatisfied with the consensus of Dutch politics, the level of public debate and what they believe is the dangerous drift of philosophy and culture in the Netherlands. It is named after the 18th-century conservative philosopher

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January ew Style, NS1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish Politician, statesman, journalist, writer, literary critic, philosopher, and parliamentary orator who is regarded as the founder of the Social philosophy, soc ...

. From 2000 to 2005, the Foundation was active as both a think tank and an educational group. In that time, the foundation took positions that are both fiscally and socially conservative. It organized an annual summer school for undergraduate students, conferences, seminars and lectures on topics such as the

multicultural Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''ethnic'' or cultural pluralism in which various e ...

society, education, health care, foreign policy and defense. Conservatives associated with the Foundation were, for example, in favor of health care privatization and tax cuts. The Foundation has links with conservative think tanks in the U.S., including

The Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (or simply Heritage) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1973, it took a leading role in the conservative movement in the 1980s during the Presi ...

and the

American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right think tank based in Washington, D.C., that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare ...

. Speakers at the foundation's events included

Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton, (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of Conservatism in the United Kingdom, c ...

, the Burke scholar Peter Stanlis, Dutch writer

Leon de Winter Leon de Winter (born 26 February 1954) is a Dutch novelist and columnist. Early life Leon de Winter was born on 24 February 1954 in Den Bosch, in the southern Netherlands. He grew up in a Jewish Orthodox family and attended City Grammar Sc ...

, Islam-expert

Reuel Marc Gerecht Reuel Marc Gerecht (born 1949) is an American writer and political analyst focused on the Middle East. He is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, focusing primarily on the Middle East, Islamic militancy, counterterrorism ...

Frits Bolkestein Frederik "Frits" Bolkestein (; 4 April 1933 – 17 February 2025) was a Dutch politician and energy executive who served as Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) from 1990 to 1998 and List of European Commissioners by nati ...

and

Onno Ruding Herman Onno Christiaan Rudolf "Onno" Ruding (born 15 August 1939) is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and businessman. Ruding worked as student researcher at the Erasmus University Rotterdam from June ...

, former finance minister of The Netherlands. In the summer of 2005, the Board of the Foundation decided to focus its activities more exclusively on its educational, cultural and philosophical programs, taking the

Intercollegiate Studies Institute The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes conservative thought on college campuses. It was founded in 1953 by Frank Chodorov with William F. Buckley Jr. as its first president. It sponso ...

explicitly as a role model. Consequently,

stepped back as full-time managing director of the think tank to join the political party of

Geert Wilders Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives. Wilders is best known for his right-wing p ...

, but remained a member of the governing Board of the Foundation. Several former employees then spun off the think-tank activities into a new group called the European Independent Institute.

Media activities

In its think tank period, the Burke Foundation regularly published reports and studies on a variety of topics, including the Dutch health care sector,

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

, wasteful government spending and conservative philosophy and thought. Members of the Burke Foundation published articles and op-eds in numerous newspapers, and many newspapers devoted substantial attention to the activities of the Foundation. Those newspapers include

De Telegraaf ''De Telegraaf'' (; ) is the largest Netherlands, Dutch daily morning newspaper. Haro Kraak,Gaat Paul Jansen de crisis bij De Telegraaf oplossen?, ''de Volkskrant'', 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Paul Jansen has been the editor-in-chief since ...

de Volkskrant ''De Volkskrant'' (; ), stylized as de Volkskrant, is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium- ...

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis NRC. It is widely regarded as a newspaper of record in the country. History was first published on 1 October 1970 after a merger of the Amst ...

Het Parool ''Het Parool'' () is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means ''The Password'' or ''The Motto' ...

Trouw ''Trouw'' (; ) is a Dutch daily newspaper appearing in compact size. It was founded in 1943 as an orthodox Protestant underground newspaper during World War II. Since 2009, it has been owned by DPG Media (known as De Persgroep until 2019). '' ...

Nederlands Dagblad ''Nederlands Dagblad'' (; "Dutch Daily") is a Dutch daily newspaper, available nationwide, with a daily circulation of 23,800 issues (in 2020). History The paper was founded in 1944 as a semi- resistance paper during World War II called ''Refor ...

, and weekly magazines such as

HP/De Tijd ''HP/De Tijd'' is a Dutch language monthly opinion magazine. Its editorial offices are in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Alongside '' De Groene Amsterdammer'', '' Vrij Nederland'' and ''Elsevier'', it is one of the most influential Dutch opinion magazin ...

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

, and

De Groene Amsterdammer ''De Groene Amsterdammer'' () is an independent Dutch weekly news magazine published in Amsterdam. It is one of the five independent opinion magazines in the Netherlands, alongside '' HP/De Tijd'', '' Vrij Nederland'', ''Elsevier'' and the Jewish ...

. Members of the Burke Foundation also appeared regularly on TV and Radio programs, including

NOVA A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

, Den Haag Vandaag, TweeVandaag, and the Radio 1 News program.

Funding

The Foundation received substantial support during its think-tank period from a variety of sources, including small private donors, Dutch entrepreneurs, and various multinational corporations, such as

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral (New York City), The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 184 ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edmund Burke Foundation 2000 establishments in the Netherlands Think tanks established in 2000 Think tanks based in the Netherlands Organisations based in The Hague Conservatism in the Netherlands Political and economic research foundations Political organisations based in the Netherlands Edmund Burke