Will the internet kill thinktanks?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/20/thinktanks.internet

Thinktanks exist to bring fresh ideas to bear in policymaking and politics. They win their influence either through intimacy with their principal political "clients" or through independent technical expertise. They are listened to either in the way that you might listen to your spouse or your GP. The intimacy model guarantees media coverage because political journalists can easily make a story out of a report from a thinktank that represents a particular party or faction within a party. But this is a double-edged sword, as Policy Exchange discovered to their cost last week. In reality of course, thinktanks strike a balance between the two, and most aim to be critical friends of their political soulmates rather than getting into bed with them.

At the same time, it is inevitable that the shifting sands of politics will ensure that there is at least one "hot" thinktank, the one associated with the coming forces in politics and which finds it easiest to raise money – and raise a stink. Looking forward, the erosion of the lines between the parties in many areas of policy and ideology suggests that a looser relationship to specific political groupings might be appropriate: Demos, for example, aims to be intensely political but not party-political. So long as a thinktank is clear about its intellectual centre of gravity, it ought to be able to engage with politicians from across the spectrum.

Some are now wondering whether the whole thinktank model is bust. The Labour minister Jim Knight suggests on his Facebook page that thinktanks, "ultimately very elitist top-down institutions populated with very bright people who politicians sometimes seem to sub-contract their thinking to", are out of date in an era of online networking, blogs and wikipedia. "Network-enabled policymaking" may replace boring old thinktank reports, he says.

The transmission, testing and collision of ideas in an environment with the immediacy of the web is certainly a huge challenge for thinktanks: but surely an opportunity too. So long as think-tanks can demonstrate real expertise – be "elitist" in the best sense of the term – they should welcome the heat of online debate.

Most American think tanks seem to have been formed around a specific agenda, with all "research" aimed toward supporting their predetermined goals - aka, propaganda - and upon which continued funding is dependent.

Hardly leaves any room for "fresh new ideas".

and at the same time, the GOP.

At least that's how I think of them. Of course, I have a couple of neighbors who work at the Hoover Institute.

the water is just fine.

I believe any political leader bold and visionary enough to embrace this magnified mental synergy will in turn have tremendous power and resources as they will be directly connected to the pulse and the mindset of the people.

However, busting bubbles is what we're all about, therefore the political leaders hiding in ivory towers sheltered by think tanks and surreal television pundits as a substitute for doing their primary job of connecting with and representing the people's best interest, will most likely be popped.

Thanks for the thread, Thankfully_in_Britain.