From Policy Research to Political Advocacy: The Changing Role of Think Tanks in American Politics

Canadian Review of American Studies/Revue amadtenne d'etudes americmnes Volume 25, Number 1, Winter 1995, pp. 93-126 From Policy Research to Political Advocacy: The Changing Role of Think Tanks in American Politics Donald E. Abelson Introduction The relationship between political leaders and those who advise them is critically important to the study of governmental decision making. By providing their expertise to members of Congress, the Executive and the bureaucracy, policy advisors play a vital role in formulating and injecting ideas into the policy-making process. While policy makers in the United States continue to solicit the advice of experts in universities, interest groups, professional and business associations, corporations and law firms, they are relying increasingly on scholars from think tanks or policy research institutions to identify, develop, shape, and at times implement, policy ideas. From the time Woodrow Wilson entered the White House in 1913, presidents and presidential candidates have solicited the advice of policy experts, many recruited from prestigious academic think tanks, to help chart a course for America's future. Despite Wilson's concern over the growing mfluence of nonelected policy advisors and how they could undermine the democratic nature of government, several of his successors including Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, frequently turned to policy experts for advice. 1 More recently, during the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton welcomed the advice of policy experts from a handful of Washington-based think tanks including the 94 Canadian Review of American Studies/ Revue canadienne d'etudes amencaines Progressive Policy Institute, the Economic Policy Institute, and the Institute for International Economics. However, despite dispensing advice to decisionmakers for close to a century, only recently have political scientists and historians begun to examine the role and function of think tanks in the policy-making process. While hundreds of studies have documented how interest groups, public advocacy coalitions and other nongovernmental organizations lobby government officials to pursue policies compatible with their institutional interests, little scholarly attention has been devoted to studying how think tanks seek to influence America's political agenda. There are several studies detailing the institutional histories of prestigious American think tanks, 2 however, the efforts of think tanks to become firmly entrenched in Washington's decision-making network have largely been overlooked. 3 Given the extensive ties between think tanks and government departments and agencies, as well as the frequency with which their members are appointed to high-level government positions, 4 one cannot afford to disregard their growing involvement in the policy-making process. Although think tanks represent but one set of actors competing for power and prestige in the marketplace of ideas, they have distinguished themselves as important and, at times, influential actors in the policy-making community. Through publishing brief and full-length studies on a wide range of policy issues, inviting decisionmakers to conferences and seminars, providing commentaries on network newscasts, establishing liaison offices to develop and maintain contact with members of Congress and the Executive, serving on various presidential boards, commissions, election task forces and transition teams, and giving testimony before Congressional committees and subcommittees, think tanks have become permanent fixtures in the policy formation process. Although not generally considered to be part of the formal structure of the American government, 5 for decades think tanks have managed to operate effectively within its parameters. While think tanks have become firmly ensconced in the political fabric of many nations throughout the international community, the primary focus of this study will be on American policy research institutions. With an estimated 1200 think tanks competing for influence and financial resources at the local, Donald E. Abelson 95 state, and national level,6 think tanks have become a virtual cottage industry in the United States. 7 In Canada, 8 Australia,9 and Britain, 10 and to a lesser extent in Germany, 11 and France, 12 think tanks perform similar functions. Like their American counterparts, they conduct research on various aspects of domestic and foreign policy and advise policymakers on a wide range of issues. Moreover, although the size of their budgets and the scope of their research programs are, with few exceptions, 13 considerably more limited than those of the...