Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise

Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise

While the number of think tanks active in American politics has more than quadrupled since the 1970s, their influence has not expanded proportionally. Instead, the known ideological proclivities of many, especially newer think tanks, and their aggressive efforts to obtain high profiles have come to undermine the credibility with which experts and expertise are generally viewed by public officials. In many cases, think tanks have become more marketing than research organizations, with styles of behavior that mimic interest groups more than universities. Rather than organizations committed to objective analysis of policy problems, think tanks have become organizations that turn experts into advocates and policy information into ammunition. The once-real boundaries between experts and advocates in American policy making have become blurred. This book explains this paradox and elaborates on its significant implications both for the practice of policy making and for scholarly debates about agenda setting, interest groups, and lawmaking. The analysis is based on 135 in-depth interviews with  officials at think tanks and those in the policymaking and funding organizations that draw upon and support their work. The book reports on results from an original survey of congressional staff and journalists and detailed case studies of the role of experts in health care and telecommunications reform debates in the 1990s and tax reduction in 2001.

Andrew Rich is an assistant professor of political science at City College of New York. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. Professor Rich taught at Wake Forest University from 1999 to 2003.

Think Tanks, Public Policy,
and the Politics of Expertise

     ANDREW RICH
     City College of New York

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Andrew Rich 2004

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2004

Printed in the United States of America

Typeface Sabon 10/13 pt.       System  LATEX 2_e    [TB]

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Rich, Andrew.
Think tanks, public policy, and the politics of expertise / Andrew Rich.
   p.   cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-521-83029-X
1. Policy sciences – Research – United States. 2. Policy scientists – United States.
3. Research institutes – United States. 4. Nonprofit organizations – United States.
5. Expertise – political aspects – United States. 6. Political planning – United States.
7. Legislative hearings – United States. I. Title.
H97.R53 2004
320.06′0973 – dc22       2003065392

ISBN 0 521 83029X hardback

To my parents, Daniel and Nancy Rich

Contents

Tables

Figures

Acknowledgments

I have benefited from great guidance and support in writing this book. David Mayhew has been a generous source of ideas and insights on the project since its inception. He helped me design the project when it was a dissertation, and he held me to high standards during all stages of its execution. He encouraged me to be rigorous and thorough in every aspect of the research. I am grateful for his high standards and for his continuing influence on how I think as a political scientist. Kent Weaver was a superb source of good ideas, useful information, and – more often than I like to remember – helpful criticisms as I worked on this book. He encouraged me to persist at points when dead-ends seemed to be looming, and he rescued me more than once from wasting time on avenues that would not have been worthwhile. He is a wonderful colleague and collaborator.

  Stephen Skowronek, Rogers Smith, Peter Dobkin Hall, Charles Perrow, and Don Green each provided additional helpful advice when the manu- script was a dissertation. I am grateful, as well, to Josef Braml, Corey Robin, Eric Schickler, James Smith, Diane Stone, Peter Siavelis, and Fiona Wright for reading all or portions of earlier versions of the manuscript. Jacob Hacker kindly shared transcripts from some of his interviews about the Clinton health care reform effort when I was working on that case. I am grateful to him for those transcripts and for his advice on that case. My colleagues at Wake Forest University and City College provided collegial and supportive environments while I rewrote the manuscript (almost completely), transforming it from a dissertation into a book. Heath Bumgardner, Kevin Greer, Jeff Saltzman, Scott Savage, and Patrice Yang provided valuable research assistance. Robyn Washington designed the dust jacket.

  Financial support for the project was provided by the Aspen Institute’s Nonprofit Sector Research Fund, Yale University’s Program on Non-profit Organizations, the Rockefeller Archive Center, and Wake Forest University’s Archie Fund. My thanks to each for its support. As I began the project, I also benefited from support from the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. I am grateful to Louis Blair, the executive secretary of the Foundation, for inviting me to participate in the Foundation’s Summer Institute in 1996, thus enabling me to begin project interviews in Washington, D.C. In the final stages of my dissertation work, I was a research Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Whatever concerns I had about studying think tanks while at a think tank were quickly allayed when I arrived at Brookings. I enjoyed full independence in my work there as well as frequent fruitful discussions and debates with colleagues that improved the final product. I am grateful to Sarah Binder, Steve Hess, Paul Light, Tom Mann, Jennifer Steen, and Kent Weaver for advice and encouragement during that year. Lew Bateman at Cambridge University Press was a wonderful source of advice and encouragement during my revisions to the project. His suggestions, along with those of two anonymous reviewers, have improved the final book. Eric Newman has my thanks for his careful copyediting of the manuscript.

  Last, my thanks to Joel Allen and to my parents, Daniel and Nancy Rich, for their unending support and enthusiasm for the work that went into this book – and for their tolerance of my preoccupations and frustrations along the way.