Reading: Murray Weidenbaum – The Competition of Ideas: The World of the Washington Think Tanks

Hardcover: 125 pages
Publisher: Transaction Publishers (September 30, 2008)

It is estimated that there are approximately 1,400 think tanks in the United States. They generally operate at crossroads of politics and academics and are a key resource of information for the politicians and media alike. The Competition of Ideas focuses on five Washington-based think tanks which are labeled “large and diversified” – the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Cato Institute, and the Heritage Foundation – referred as DC-5.

One of the key points in the book is the integrity of the DC-5 think tanks that is often questioned, because the financing they receive from corporations and foundations. But according to Weidenbaum’s experience much of that negative impression is the result of secondary sources-reading about think tanks, “it is a rare academic who has read the wide range of reports issued by any of the DC-5 or participated in their conferences and meetings.” Some of the empirical research also argues that votes don’t tend to follow money as strongly as money follows votes (study at Bard College). The impact of the think tanks is also extremely hard to measure. On any given instance it is nearly impossible to define exact role of the given think tank due to elusive nature of “impact” and multiplicity of players, which makes the question of integrity even more debatable.

All in all a good read about the five biggest think tanks in Washington.