Deep lobbying

Deep lobbying

Deep lobbying is a process of shaping the intellectual atmosphere around a politicized topic based on a political or economic agenda.[1] Most deep lobbying is done by think tanks, who create talking points and sponsor fellowships for like-minded academics (so-called "wingnut welfare").

The term was coined by Steven Clemons in a 2003 paper for the Japan Policy Research Institute[2] Says Clemons, "Think tanks are in the business of policy analysis, but they also market that analysis and attempt to sell their views to the public and to the government. For example, senior fellows at Brookings maintain a reputation for being more academic than most policy wonks in Washington and broadcast their work through books more frequently than other researchers. By contrast, fellows at the Heritage Foundation operate more frequently through faxed policy briefs or op-eds in the Washington Times and other newspapers and magazines. In the last decade, the same phenomenon that has occurred in scientific research and development funding has happened in the public policy analysis business."

References

  1. ^ Benjamin Wallace-Wells. In the Tank: The intellectual decline of AEI. The Washington Monthly
  2. ^ Steven C. Clemons. The Corruption of Think Tanks JPRI Critique, Vol. X, No. 2 (February 2003)