Blackwell Reference Online

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A think tank is a half-century-old notion commonly invoked in political discourse to refer to civil society organizations specializing in the production and dissemination of knowledge related to public policy. In recent decades, the number and apparent political significance of think tanks have increased worldwide, making them a focus of growing scholarly and popular attention. Even so, ambiguities surrounding the proper definition of a think tank and the appropriate classification of their affiliated “policy experts” have hampered the development of a general theory of their political effects. The term “think tank” originated in the United States of the late nineteenth century as a colloquial and often vaguely condescending expression for a person's head or brain. Playful references to think tanks can be found in novels, advertisements, and newspaper articles from the 1890s to the 1960s. For instance, among the OED 's sample sentences is a passage from a 1964 newspaper article in which former President Harry Truman jokes about the onset of senility: “Truman … said he hoped to live to be 90 but only ‘if the old think-tank is working.’” A shift in the term's referent, from brain to research organization, began in the late 1950s. One organization, the Stanford University-based Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), appears to have supplied the bridge for this ... log in or subscribe to read full text