Smith, James A. The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the New
Policy Elite. New York: The Free Press, 1993. 330 pages. An appendix
titled "Think Tank Directory" (pages 270-310) describes 44 think tanks.
This is an objective, scholarly history of the ascending influence of
expert opinion and academic elites on American social and foreign policy
during the twentieth century. There have been several ideological trends
over the years, from the metaphor of preventive medicine, to those of social
efficiency, balance, or adjustment. After World War II, the emphasis was
on economics, game theory, input-output analysis, pragmatism, evaluation,
quantification, and technique. Robert McNamara's whiz kids, many of whom
came from the Rand Corporation, personified this trend.
This intellectual fad crashed and burned with the failure of U.S.
policy in Vietnam. Neo-conservatives stepped into the void and pushed the
pendulum back with a return to "values," and the notion that "ideas have
consequences." Foundations and corporations pumped money into hands-on
Washington think tanks, who then put numerous "experts" on the payroll.
The author feels that these have become too politicized, and that "policy
research institutions have thought little about broad civic education and
more about advising those in the government or gaining attention from the
mass media.... The expert class has interposed itself between the average
citizen and the deliberations of government." (page 238)
ISBN 0-02-929555-6
Extract the names from this source
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