Christopher DeMuth, a longtime proponent of rightist social policies, became president of the American
Enterprise Institute (AEI) in 1986, at a time when the Washington-based think tank was emerging
as one of the most influential rightist research institutes in the United States. During his career,
DeMuth has supported conservative positions ranging from his pet topic of regulation to fighting the
conventional wisdom on climate change to neoconservative foreign policy. DeMuth has fought on behalf
of free enterprise and corporations, saying that "the corporation is the transmission belt of much
of our saving, prosperity, and progress" (Christopher DeMuth, " Irving
Kristol Award and Lecture for 2007").
After stints working as a staff assistant in the Nixon White House, practicing law, and lecturing
at Harvard University, DeMuth settled in as an anti-regulation champion in the Reagan White House, serving
as the director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief and as an administrator in the Office
of Information and Regulatory Affairs. After his experience on Pennsylvania Avenue, DeMuth went on to
work at Lexecon Inc., an economics and law consultancy. In 1986, he became the editor-in-chief and publisher
of Regulation, a magazine started by AEI that advocates removal of regulations that hinder businesses
and which was subsequently acquired by the libertarian Cato Institute. That same year, he was elected
the president of AEI (AEI Biography: Christopher DeMuth).
Under DeMuth, AEI has increased its funding dramatically. In 2005, the think tank raked in $37 million
in revenue (AEI Annual Report, 2005). DeMuth is credited as a major player in this change. Under his
leadership, AEI has increasingly tailored its products to conform to the tastes of conservatives and
corporate underwriters of the think tank ("In the Tank: The Intellectual Decline of AEI," Washington
Monthly, December 2003). When George W. Bush entered the White House, AEI gained access to the highest
levels of officialdom with its nearly two dozen appointees in the administration (President Bush, the
White House, February 26, 2003).
As Slate reported: "The Iraq War was, to a remarkable extent, an AEI production. Vice
President (and Hawk-in-Chief) Dick Cheney was
an AEI fellow immediately before joining the Bush White House, and his wife Lynne still
is. Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of
defense for policy and, outside of Cheney, the most robotic defender of the Iraq invasion, was an AEI
fellow. So was Laurie Mylroie, the leading academic proponent of the crackpot theory that Iraq was behind
9/11. Richard Perle is an AEI scholar. So
is John Bolton. So is John
Yoo, the Bush Justice Department's former torture maven. When former Pentagon deputy secretary and
Iraq hawk extraordinaire Paul Wolfowitz resigned
as president of the World Bank (over a dust-up concerning a high-paying job he'd arranged for his girlfriend),
where did he land as a visiting scholar? You guessed it" (Slate, October 12, 2007).
In the lead up to the Iraq War, Council on Foreign
Relations President Leslie Gelb said that the Bush administration could benefit from some outside
advice, suggesting that its reliance on a small group of tightly connected advisers had proved faulty.
He volunteered to bring together three groups, including his own, to discuss how this could be done. Condoleezza
Rice, then the national security adviser, agreed, but asked that the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative think tank that had expressed some reservations about the invasion, be
replaced by AEI. At an initial meeting between Rice and the heads of the three groups, Rice reportedly
paid attention only to DeMuth. When Gelb began to lay out his thoughts on planning and what the situation
would require in post-invasion Iraq, he was quickly cut off by DeMuth. "This is nation-building,
and you said you were against that," said DeMuth. (George Packer, The Assassins' Gate: America
in Iraq, 2005).
DeMuth and AEI have been accused of using cash to solicit opinions that match up with ideological
goals rather than letting policy be set by the conclusions of independent scholarly work. In early 2007,
it was alleged that AEI had contacted several scientists and offered them $10,000 to provide papers that
would contradict a forthcoming UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change study ("Scientists Offered
Cash to Dispute Climate Study," Guardian, February 2, 2007). After a letter from four senators
to DeMuth questioning the AEI's solicitation, DeMuth replied to the senators denying the accusations
and insinuating that they were stifling debate because they "object to being paid a 'significant
sum' for dissenting research, which rather limits your conception of permissible dissent" (Chris
DeMuth, letter to senators on February 9, 2007).
In 1995 DeMuth coedited, with Weekly Standardhead William
Kristol, The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol. Contributors
to the volume included Robert Bork, Mark
Gerson, Michael Joyce, Leon
Kass, Michael Novak, Norman
Podhoretz, and Irwin Stelzer.
In October 2007, DeMuth announced that he would be stepping down as president of AEI by the end of
2008, though he said he would like to stay on as a scholar ("Think-Tank Confidential," Wall
Street Journal, October 11, 2007).
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Affiliations
American Enterprise Institute: President, 1986- ; Trustee, 1986-
AEI-Brookings Joint Center: Senior Fellow
Smith Richardson Foundation: Grant Adviser, 2002-
Congressional Policy Advisory Board: Member, 1998
Regulation Magazine: Editor-in-Chief, Publisher (1986)
Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government: Director, Harvard Faculty Project on Regulation and Lecturer in Public Policy (1977-1981)
Government Service
U.S. Office of Management and Budget: Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (1981-1984)
Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief: Executive Director (1981-1983)
White House: Staff Assistant to the President (1969-1970)
Private Sector
State Farm Mutual: Board of Directors, 2004-
Donors Capital Fund: Board of Directors, 2000-
Clean Burn Inc.: Board Chairman, 1990-
Millcreek Manufacturing: Board Chairman, 1990-
Searle Freedom Trust: Grant Adviser, 1997-
DeMuth Steel Products Company: Board Chairman, (1990-2006)
Insurance Services Office: Board of Directors (1990-1995)
Lexecon, Inc.: Managing Director (1984-1986)
Consolidated Rail Corp.: Associate General Counsel (1976-1977)
Sidley & Austin: Attorney (1973-1976)
Education
University of Chicago Law School: J.D., 1973
Harvard University: A.B., 1968
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