Think Tanks

Think tanks are organizations that have significant autonomy from governmental interests and that synthesize, create, or disseminate information, ideas, or advice to the public, policymakers, other organizations, and the press. They range from multimillion-dollar national operations to small groups of part-time employees who work on specific issues at the local level. More than 1,000 think tanks operate in the United States.

Think tanks are a recent phenomenon in institutional knowledge production and dissemination. The first think tanks appeared at the beginning of the 1900s (e.g., Hoover Institution, 1919; Council on Foreign Relations, 1921; and Brookings Institution, 1927). More appeared in the 1940s and 1950s (e.g., American Enterprise Institute, 1943, and RAND, 1948), and they proliferated during the 1970s and 1980s (e.g., Heritage Foundation, 1973; Cato Institute, 1977; Manhattan Institute, 1978; Heartland Institute, 1984; Economic Policy Institute, 1986; Goldwater Institute, 1988; and Progressive Policy Institute, 1989).

U.S. think tanks can be categorized into three main types based on the work they do and the authority they possess: (1) contract research think tanks, (2) academic think tanks, and (3) advocacy think tanks. Contract research think tanks are private organizations that contract with other organizations, usually government agencies, to provide information in the form of original research products. Each study, program evaluation, and policy analysis they create adheres to rigorous social science methods, including the use of blind review by scientific peers. Their staffs are predominantly Ph.D.s, whose expertise and experience are in conducting original scientific research. These think tanks make their studies available to the agencies with which they contract and disseminate them to the public only to the extent that the contracting agency desires that they do so. As a result, they often put little effort into marketing their research to the general public. The RAND Corporation is the prototypical example of the contract research think tank. Although these were the original think tanks, contract research think tanks are only a small percentage of the total today.

Academic think tanks are like universities without students. They are private organizations whose main emphasis is the creation of information through original research that is relevant to current policy topics. Academic think tanks may also produce reports that synthesize existing research. In addition, these think [Page 1370]tanks may present policy ideas and advice based on their original research or their reports that synthesize existing research. Most often, the research and reports of academic think tanks focus on long-term, fundamental policy change. Like contract research think tanks, academic think tanks employ a large percentage of Ph.D.s whose expertise and experience are in conducting original research that adheres to rigorous social science methods, including blind review by scientific peers. Unlike contract research think tanks, academic think tanks' funding comes mostly from private foundations that support their general research agenda, rather than contracting for specific research or reports. The Economic Policy Institute typifies the academic think tank. Approximately one third of think tanks are of this model.

Advocacy think tanks are the newest, largest, and fastest-growing think tank model. These think tanks are private organizations that emphasize the creation and dissemination of information in the form of policy ideas and advice. Their mission is to win the political war of ideas that surround policy making. Advocacy think tanks do not attempt to present neutral information; rather, they are aggressive ideological advocates for specific policies.

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