About the Institute

VÁCLAV KLAUS INSTITUTE

The Václav Klaus Institute (IVK) was founded in the year 2012. Its name indicates one of its main projects: spreading the political opinions of Václav Klaus. The goal of IVK is in fact much larger than that- it analyses not only Czech’s most recent political, social, and economic events, which Václav Klaus has strongly influenced since the fall of communism, but also international current events and problems. The Institute not only conducts research, but also generates, publishes, and compiles literature on these relevant subjects.

The VK Institute is conceptualized as a conservative non-profit public policy research organization- a think tank- with its own scholarly activities, seminars, conferences, and other events for both professional and lay person audiences.

The Václav Klaus Institute’s main goal is to promote individual freedoms, free market economies, and protect traditional values as well as political democracy.

It concerns itself with current political and economic themes, particularly with new or innovative trending ideologies that can threaten peoples freedom, democracy, and the traditional values on which western civilization stood and should continue to stand.

Associated with the name Václav Klaus is nearly a quarter century of Czech Republic’s renewed democracy and all the key occurrences of this time. His name thus anchors us to the development of our young state, as well as Europe and the world after the fall of communism. This is above all important today since the generational shift has brought about fictionalized, minimized, inaccurate, and often downright fictitious ideas about our recent past. What is taught about our history in schools is after all shortened and modified to fit certain political agendas.

The dangerous reality for members of current and future generations is that the ideological battles and struggles we thought were won after 1989 will be fought again. Collectivism, social engineering, pervasive efforts to limit human liberties by regulating all aspects of life, hidden under misleading slogans of new ideologies, are again pushing forwards. Europism, environmentalism, ideas of global governance, erosion of democracy, the effects of media manipulation, juristocracy, the excessive growth of multiculturalism and human rights activism- these are all dangerous tendencies that are contributing to the creation of our own “Brave New World”. They threaten our individual freedoms, rights to business, the stability of basic business institutions, political democracy, and nation states- which are the natural and logical environment in which democracy can thrive.

One of the Václav Klaus Institute’s main projects is a reaction to this situation. IVK concerns itself with key moments in our modern history, compiles literature by libertarian thinkers and theoreticians worldwide—releasing their opinions to the general public, and enables international cooperation.

IVK is a generally successful company comprised primarily of: Václav Klaus, Ladislav Jakl, Ivo Strejček, Jan Kříž, Jan Koukal, Václav Klaus Jr., and Jiří Weigl. In order to maintain its independence, it does not accept government grants and is funded by individuals, foundations, and corporations.