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

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