{"id":2010,"date":"2011-09-15T12:13:50","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T17:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/\/"},"modified":"2016-01-26T12:14:53","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T17:14:53","slug":"when-influence-can-be-a-bad-thing-think-tanks-are-crushing-our-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/when-influence-can-be-a-bad-thing-think-tanks-are-crushing-our-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"When influence can be a bad thing: “think tanks are crushing our democracy”"},"content":{"rendered":"
George Monbiot has published a rather interesting commentary on Comment is Free about the \u00a0damage that\u00a0secretive<\/em>\u00a0think tanks can make on democratic institutions<\/a>.<\/p>\n I have talked about this before, arguing that direct impact, without public debate, can be damaging to the development of necessary\u00a0democratic institutions such as political parties<\/a>\u00a0(I dedicated a whole book to this), the media, parliaments, etc.<\/p>\n Monbiot here focuses on how ‘secret’ interests are funding public policy influence and the effect that this has on how we conduct politics:<\/p>\n When she attempted to\u00a0restrict abortion counselling<\/a>,\u00a0Nadine Dorries MP was supported by a group called Right to Know<\/a>. When other MPs asked her who funds it, she claimed she didn’t know. Lord Lawson is chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which casts doubt on climate science. It demands “openness and transparency” from scientists. Yet he\u00a0refuses to say who pays<\/a>, on the grounds that the donors “do not wish to be publicly engaged in controversy”. Michael Gove was chairman ofPolicy Exchange<\/a>, an influential conservative thinktank. When I asked who funded Policy Exchange when he ran it, his office told me “he doesn’t have that information and he won’t be able to help you”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n