Thoughts on Think Tanks

I appreciated the obvious collaborative effort at the think tank. You could tell this from the relationship of our speaker with his colleague. I was surprised to hear of the collaborations with other think thanks from across the pond and over party lines. However, when there are so many think tanks on the conservative side of the aisle it only makes sense that you would need to work with one along the way in order to get your agenda completed.

Our speaker supported the readings assertions that think tanks attract all kinds of people and professions. This was represented by the specialties from the professionals we met with at the think tank. One was focused on political theory and the other on analyzing data. Our speaker agreed with the four tropes discussed in the reading, but added a fifth type of person: the ideologically driven one. Although I understand that there are several ideological think tanks (particularly for conservatives and libertarians), to add those who are ideologically driven to the main categories of professionals blurs the lines between lobbying groups and think tanks even more so than it already is. This is not to say that having ideologically driven employees at a think tank is troublesome, but to make it an official characteristic would confuse the roles of the two organizations in my opinion. The more ideologically based think tanks become, the easier it is for them to develop into echo chambers. I think if we allow this fifth trope then it would be harder to collaborate with other think tanks that have a different philosophy, especially as the political landscape becomes more polarized. The speaker stated that partisanship is a challenge for think thanks. In order for think tanks to not be tied to faction, parties or leaders, we should not specify a specific quality for those that work in a think tank to be tied to a certain ideology.

The ambiguous role of think tanks in the policy process was explained better during the site visit where the speaker was able to describe his work in getting a certain bill passed. He talked a lot about the think tanks work in getting the Affordable Care Act written, emphasis on written not passed. Their research included demographic data as well as looking at policies in other countries to see what works and why it works. Think tanks’ efforts are more focused on writing a bill that could pass through Congress with few amendments. In contrast, lobbyists use their power and money to maintain relationships with elected officials in order to have the bills passed or rejected once they are brought to the floor. Think tanks create the bill that lobbyists will try to persuade officials outlook on.

The speaker made a specific effort to describe these two entities as separate since there is some confusion in the role of think tanks. He explained how private companies are creating internal think tanks. Although think tanks cannot use their money for lobbying, there can be one organization that doubles as a think tank and lobbying firm. I wonder if the influence of money in politics could be curtailed at all if the government no longer allowed these two types of establishments under the same company name? He also pointed out how there are some think tanks that are results based instead of fact based. Qualities like this, make the think tanks seem shady or confusing in the political landscape to those who do not study policy. This system is not a form of lobbying, however, the information analyzed by these biased groups is used to pass laws by politicians or lobbying firms to gain or plummet support on a policy. This is even more of an issue since think tanks are supported by those with money so donors will have more an influence over the research than would be considered ethical. And then once again the wealthy have power over the many. The speaker’s solution to this seems plausible ideally, but I don’t think our government would even start to look at funding think tanks equally until the myriad of other budgeting problems are dealt with. The only other way I can think of in addressing the problem of outside money would be to revisit the Citizens United ruling and I do not think that’ll happen anytime soon.

This visit allowed me to understand think tanks and their role in policy more thoroughly. I learn a new way to influence the government and policy all the time here in DC. Lastly, it was brought to my attention that state level think tanks are powerful too, especially in tax and budget issues. I continue to be surprised by this fact simply because you associate most of the power in government to go to the federal level. To be honest, I didn’t even know state level think tanks existed. I appreciate the wide array of jobs and goals at a think tank after our visit.