The Hill News

The once clear line between interest groups and think tanks has become increasingly blurry during the well-publicized struggle for control of the Cato Institute. Scholars, such as Tevi Troy, have recently criticized the rapid drift of some well-known think tanks from their core values of impartiality and nonpartisanship which defined their historic mission (Winter 2012 edition of National Affairs). More and more, think tanks of the left and right blur the line between simply informing the policy process and advocating for particular policy outcomes. In doing so, they may sacrifice their trusted position as purveyors of policy information and possibly their status of nonprofit organizations.

In light of this year’s campaign, nowhere can this phenomenon be as clearly observed as during recent presidential transitions. While interest groups dominate voter mobilization, campaign finance, and issue advertising, it is think tanks which control transition planning.! The Brookings Institution was the first in 1960 to play this role; sidling up to both Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy with an array of technocrats who had planned out the necessary steps the new president would need to take upon election--they even offered free office space and use of their library. In a largely non-ideological fashion, Brookings opined on the manner in which a transition should be executed, which policy areas were most critical, and which federal positions needed to be filled first. Kennedy’s victory signaled the ascendancy of Brookings as the voice of rational, non-partisan government planning.

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