From Policy Research to Political Advocacy Differentiating Think Tanks from Pressure Groups in American Politics

Public policy research organisations or think tanks have played a critical role in the policymaking process and have served as catalyst of ideas, innovations and actions. They fill a void between the academic world, on the one hand, and the realm of government on the other. The ones that emerged in the first decades of the twentieth century were committed to bringing scientific expertise to bear on public policy issues. The advancement of knowledge for the purpose of improving governmental decision making was their main priority. However, new partisan think tanks have become more committed to influencing policy than to improving it. In fact, the intense competition between think tanks for influence in the marketplace of ideas had led some scholars to treat policy research institutions as another type of interest group committed to influencing public policy. Similarly, to provide greater expertise to decision makers, interest groups develop more resources to conducting research. While think tanks have many features in common with interest groups, they are different from each others. Accordingly, this article tries to outline a number of criteria to define characteristics of policy research institutes.