Ronald Reagan

Archive profile summary

40th president of the United States whose 1980 transition became an early major test of conservative movement infrastructure built during the preceding decade, including Heritage’s Mandate for Leadership.

Why this entry is in the archive

A documented early example of movement policy infrastructure feeding directly into a new administration.

Why Reagan is a structural turning point

By 1980, conservative organizations had spent years developing policy, activists, donors and personnel outside government. Reagan’s victory created an opportunity to move some of that capacity into a presidential administration.

Heritage transition relationship

Heritage delivered its first Mandate for Leadership to the Reagan transition and later described substantial adoption of recommendations.

The important evidence is the documented transition relationship; claims about exact implementation should be tested recommendation by recommendation.

Personnel ecosystem

Figures such as Edwin Feulner and Edwin Meese connect the movement’s outside institutions to transition and executive-branch service.

Evidence limits

The Reagan administration was not simply an arm of Heritage or the New Right.

Presidential administrations contain competing advisers and institutions, and policy adoption can have multiple causes.

Timeline

1973
Permanent public-interest litigation capacity
Pacific Legal Foundation is founded in California, creating a durable litigation organization focused on limited government and individual liberty.
Pacific Legal Foundation · Edwin Meese III
1980
From movement to transition
Heritage’s Mandate for Leadership is delivered to the Reagan transition; Feulner serves on the transition executive committee.
The Heritage Foundation · Edwin Feulner
1985
Anti-tax infrastructure becomes permanent
Grover Norquist founds Americans for Tax Reform at President Reagan’s request, according to ATR.
Grover Norquist · Americans for Tax Reform