The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute which analyzes and promotes public policies that strengthen Michigan's culture and improve its quality of life.
The Mackinac Center conducts educational events, public forums, and scholarly research to give citizens and policy makers the specific recommendations they need to solve important problems facing our families, businesses, schools, and communities. Mackinac Center ideas, based on modern economic scholarship, advance better education, greater economic opportunity, and more effective government at all levels.
Many organizations rely only on government to solve society's problems. The Mackinac Center considers the problem-solving role of all institutions: the marketplace, families, religious groups, private associations and government.
The Mackinac Center was founded in 1987 by a group of citizens who met on Mackinac Island and shared an interest in making Michigan a better place to live and work. They were concerned about the state's direction and the fact that no institution in Michigan was developing policy ideas that harnessed the benefits of our free enterprise system. That would change in 1988 when the Mackinac Center opened its doors in Midland with a broad base of private support.
Today, the Mackinac Center is an influential, respected voice in Michigan public policy. A full-time, professional staff and a board of more than 40 scholars research and promote sound policy ideas and solutions.
Mackinac Center research and ideas, widely reported by Michigan and national news media, have a successful record of helping citizens and key leaders improve their schools, neighborhoods, and governments. Michigan's Mackinac Center has become one of the most respected and influential policy research institutes in the nation.
