The nature and impact of think tanks in contemporary Britain

Abstract

This contribution surveys the impact of and literature on think tanks in Britain since 1945. The subject has been comparatively neglected until the publication in 1994 of Richard Cockett's Thinking the Unthinkable, a book which this survey critically examines. Denham and Garnett first examine what a think tank might and might not be, before going on to show that they are not a new phenomenon as is widely believed. Several nineteenth‐century antecedents are adduced to show the long history of these intermediate bodies between informed public opinion and political and governmental institutions. The heart of the survey is a sceptical analysis about the extent that ‘New Right’ think tanks actually did lead to changes in government policy from Keynesian social democracy to a greater emphasis on the free market since the 1970s.