DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/6F9R-FX76
Defense Date
2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Public Policy & Administration
First Advisor
Dr. Victor Chen
Second Advisor
Dr. Richard Huff
Third Advisor
Dr. Nancy Stutts
Fourth Advisor
Dr. I-Shian Suen
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.
Rights
© Timothy Beryl Bland
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-22-2020
Included in
Economic Policy Commons, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, Policy History, Theory, and Methods Commons, Public Administration Commons, Public Policy Commons