Mackinac Center for Public Policy
| Established | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization |
| 38-2701547 | |
| Headquarters | 140 West Main Street, Midland, Michigan, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 43°36′49″N 84°14′46″W / 43.6137°N 84.2460°W |
President | Joseph G. Lehman |
Chairman | Rodney M. Lockwood Jr. |
| Budget | Revenue: $11 million Expenses: $12.6 million (FYE December 2023) |
| Website | mackinac |
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy (/ˈmækɪnɔː/) is a think tank headquartered in Midland, Michigan. Through research and programs, the Mackinac Center supports lower taxes, reduced regulatory authority for state agencies, right-to-work laws, school choice, and property rights. It has been variously described as free market, conservative, fiscally conservative, and nonpartisan. It prefers the description "free market" over "conservative" because it does not emphasize social issues.
Joseph Overton (1960–2003), a senior vice president of the Mackinac Center, stated the political strategy that later became known as the Overton window. Overton said that politically unpopular, unacceptable policies must be changed into politically acceptable policies before they can be enacted into law.
The Mackinac Center is said to be the largest state-based free market think tank. It was ranked among the top 5 percent of think tanks in the United States by the 2018 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report as well as 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report published by the University of Pennsylvania's Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP). The Center sponsors MichiganVotes.org, an online legislative voting record database which provides a non-partisan summary of every bill and vote in the Michigan legislature.