A think tank for the economy we intend to build.
Samata Institute was founded on a simple observation: the left has never lacked moral arguments. It has lacked costed, drafted, defensible policy ready to survive a hostile committee hearing. We build that.
Why “Samata”
Samata (समता) is a Sanskrit word carrying two meanings at once: equality — the even distribution of standing and resource — and equanimity — the steadiness of mind that comes from not being at the mercy of forces you cannot influence.
We took the name because those two ideas are the same idea in economics. Material equality is what produces security, and security is what produces the freedom to plan a life. An economy that keeps most people one payslip from catastrophe is not merely unfair; it is one that forecloses on the calm required to be a citizen at all.
What we believe
We are a socialist institute, and we say so plainly. That commitment is not a conclusion we reach at the end of our research — it is the premise we research from, in the same way that market-liberal institutes begin from the premise that private allocation is efficient. The difference is that we declare it.
Concretely, we hold that:
- Ownership determines outcomes. You cannot tax your way out of a structure in which capital holds every decision right. Redistribution is necessary and insufficient.
- Essential goods should not be markets. Healthcare, housing, water, energy, transit, care and education perform badly as commodities and well as public services.
- Workers should govern, not merely earn. Codetermination and sectoral bargaining are not concessions extracted from firms; they are the constitutional basis of a legitimate economy.
- Planning is unavoidable. Decarbonisation on a physical deadline requires coordinated public investment. The question is not whether to plan but who plans, and who they answer to.
- Democracy does not stop at the workplace door. Decisions of enormous public consequence are currently made by people no one elected.
How we work
Every publication here must clear four bars before it goes out. I call it the filing standard: could a legislator take this document and act on it tomorrow?
- Costed. A full fiscal note — revenue, expenditure, and net position over ten years, with the model published alongside.
- Distributed. Impact broken out by income decile, tenure, region and, where data permits, race and gender.
- Drafted. Where the policy requires statute, the operative language is supplied, not gestured at.
- Defensible. A standing rebuttal annex answering the strongest objections we can find, including the ones we find persuasive.
Where the evidence contradicts my expectations, that gets published too. Any material correction will be posted with the same prominence as the original claim, not quietly amended.
Funding & independence
Right now there is no funding to disclose. Samata Institute is unfunded and self-supported — which is worth stating plainly, because it is the reason nothing here is shaped by a donor's preferences.
If that changes, these are the terms it will change under: no money from corporate entities, corporate foundations, or any donor seeking influence over research conclusions; no single funder above 8% of annual income; every contribution above £2,000 disclosed publicly; and no funder seeing a draft before publication. Work that cannot be funded on those terms will not be done.
One researcher, named
Everything published here is written by one person, under a real name. No anonymous house style, and no institutional voice standing in for an argument.
Pradeep Muthaiya
Founded Samata Institute in 2026 to work through what a democratic socialist economy would actually require — costed properly, drafted properly, and open to being checked. Writes on ownership, labour, public provision and the green transition.
This is meant to be built on.
One person can only cost so much. If you have work that meets the filing standard — costed, distributed, drafted, defensible — I'd rather publish it here than have it sit unread.