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Think Tank Influence, Media Visibility, and Political Partisanship

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Think Tank Influence, Media Visibility, and Political Partisanship Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2020 Predators and Principles: Think Tank Influence, Media Visibility, and Political Partisanship Timothy Beryl Bland Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the Economic Policy Commons, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, Policy History, Theory, and Methods Commons, Public Administration Commons, and the Public Policy Commons © Timothy Beryl Bland Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/6344 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PREDATORS AND PRINCIPLES: THINK TANK INFLUENCE, MEDIA VISIBILITY, AND POLITICAL PARTISANSHIP A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University By Timothy Beryl Bland B.S., Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006 B.A., Political Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006 MPA, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015 Dissertation Chair: Victor Chen Ph.D. Richmond, VA May 2020 © Timothy B. Bland 2020 All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without a parade of family, friends, and professors that each contributed to my study in myriad ways, too many to count but always fond to look back on. I consider myself to be deeply in debt to many but in particular there are a few I acknowledge for their patience and support at times, and their criticism and wisdom in others. Thank you, Breck. Thank you, Victor, Richard, Nancy, and Ivan. Without question, the Wilder School and Cabell library were also indispensable to my project. Finally, thank you to my parents and the rest of my family and friends that tolerated my company and encouraged this project. 1 Abstract By some measures, the major U.S. political parties have become more extreme in their political positions in recent decades, and scholars have raised concerns about whether the policy expertise provided by today’s think tanks has become similarly partisan and polarized. Furthermore, there is a perception that certain overtly partisan and highly visible think tanks wield considerable and growing influence over the policy platforms of the major U.S. parties, using their media presence to shape public and policymaker views of particular issues. Using publicly accessible tax, media, and congressional data, my proposed study assesses the extent to which media visibility and political partisanship explain the degree of influence that modern think tanks have on policy outcomes. First, I identify which think tanks are the most influential, as measured by interactions with policymakers—namely, requests to testify at congressional committees (Abelson, 2002; Rich & Weaver, 2000). I then use multiple regression analyses to assess to what extent these measures of influence are associated with think-tank media exposure (as measured by mentions in major news sources and social media metrics) and political partisanship, adapting the methodologies of Rich and Weaver (2000) to measure the former and Groseclose and Milyo (2005) to measure the latter. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. 1 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ 2 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................. 4 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 5 THE IDEA BROKERS ........................................................................................................................................ 8 BIAS IN THINK-TANK RESEARCH ..................................................................................................................... 11 THE LIBERAL CONSENSUS ............................................................................................................................. 14 CHANGING REVENUE SOURCES AND TACTICS TO POLICY ..................................................................................... 19 MEDIATED EXPERTS IN A BACKSLIDING DEMOCRACY .......................................................................................... 25 RESEARCH PROBLEM ................................................................................................................................... 30 CH 2: THE INFLUENCE OF THINK TANKS: A MOVEMENT IN EXPERTISE ................................................. 32 POLITICAL EMERGENCE AND POLARIZING GROWTH ........................................................................................... 33 PRIVATE WEALTH AND SOCIAL DISCONTENTS ................................................................................................... 35 Brookings v. Brownlow ...................................................................................................................... 40 DISMANTLING THE CONSENSUS THROUGH CRISES ............................................................................................. 46 A counter-revolution in law ............................................................................................................... 50 CH. 3 POLITICS AND THE MEDIA ......................................................................................................... 66 ABOVE THE LAW ......................................................................................................................................... 72 THINKING GLOBALLY ................................................................................................................................... 77 LIES MY THINK TANK TOLD ME .................................................................................................................... 84 MEDIA LANDSCAPE AND THE ONLINE GIANTS ................................................................................................... 88 ACTING SWIFTLY ....................................................................................................................................... 100 PREDATORS, PARTISANS, AND THE PRINCIPLES ............................................................................................... 102 CH. 4 METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................................... 111 QUANTITATIVE ANALYSES .......................................................................................................................... 111 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 121 CH.5 RESULTS ................................................................................................................................... 122 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS ............................................................................................................................. 122 CORRELATIONAL ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................... 133 PREDICTING APPEARANCES BEFORE CONGRESS .............................................................................................. 136 CH. 6 PREDATORS AND PRINCIPLES .................................................................................................. 140 THINK TANKS ACTING PREDATORILY ON BEHALF OF ELITES ................................................................................ 140 THINK TANKS SHIFT TO THE LEFT AND FACE PRESSURES TO ADAPT ...................................................................... 143 SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY AND MENTIONS IN MORE CONSERVATIVE MEDIA ASSOCIATED WITH APPEARING BEFORE CONGRESS .............................................................................................................................................. 144 LIMITATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH AND POLICIES .............................................................. 147 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................................... 150 3 List of Figures Figure 2. 1: Congressional Staff _________________________________________________________________ 63 Figure 2. 2: Staffs of Congressional Support Offices __________________________________________________ 64 Figure 3. 1: The Polarization of Congress __________________________________________________________ 68 Figure 3. 2: The actual United States wealth distribution plotted against the estimated and ideal distributions. __ 70 Figure 3. 3: A visual of the pressures from the political and media landscape ____________________________ 105 Figure 4. 1: Path Analysis of Project _____________________________________________________________ 115 Figure
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