'The Think Tank Gap'

During the course of the Bush Administration we have heard more about Think Tanks than at any point I can remember. Democrats, Unhinged Leftists and Conspiracy Theorists (yes, I do distinguish between the latter two) have spent a pretty fair amount of time deriding the influence of these research houses. In particular, it has been said that Think Tanks have been part of an overall Republican political strategy and that they are responsible for helping elect George W. Bush. Moreover, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) has been charged with unleashing an evil neoconservative cabal on our government which sought to foment a war with Iraq, secure more oil supplies and consolidate American hegemonic dominion over the planet. AEI , Heritage and Cato are all called shills for Bush, even though the record suggests that there have been more than a few differences of opinion with the White House.

Paradoxically, in the aftermath of the 2004 election one of the things Democrats have identified as a weakness in their political infrastructure is a 'think tank gap.' And a necessary step in regaining the White House is...developing more, liberal Think Tanks. Billionaire Bush-hater George Soros is heavily involved in this process. Of course, as I pointed out in that post, the Dems already had quite a few. So it's clear where this is all headed: A Think Tank arms race!

Daniel Drezner speaks to the subject of the Think Tank race and describes its evolution. Basically, the Think Tank as we know it is disappearing. The new Think Tank culture will be one of serving as a communications arm to the political parties.

However, several participants enmeshed in the think tank culture argued that this wasn't the direction thik tanks were going. Instead, several of them -- and Heritage, Cato and the Center for American Progress were the leading examples -- had switched their focus from churning out deep policy proposals in favor of op-eds. Indeed, the staffing at many think tanks had shifted, with the communications and PR sides receiving a much larger share of the pie relative to the policy wonks.

Anyone who knows anything about organizations recognizes that all bureaucracies like to use quantifiable metrics, and surely op-eds would be one example. And it would be insane to argue that think tanks should forswear the op-ed. But the overall point was that the cost of this change in direction for think tanks was fewer in-depth monographs or books, and more output devoted to the 24-hour news cycle. Some would like this trend to accelerate -- one of Matt Yglesias' themes is that think tanks need to blog more.