Grant competitions let funders steer think-tank agendas more than direct persuasion did

Evidence

As the number of initiatives and targeted countries increased rapidly in the 1990s, diffusion mechanisms had to be rethought. Indirect and mediated forms of influence came to complement direct interaction and communication. Initially, Atlas had provided seed money in an ad hoc manner to “worthy” think tanks. From the early 2000s, it moved to distribute general purpose funds through grant competitions. Think tanks filled out a six-page grant application, accessible from the website. Atlas organized the review and selection. Most of the grants went to non-US think tanks (around 85 percent between 2004 and 2013). Grant competitions meant that Atlas could have leverage on and steer the agenda of network members. Whereas initially it had to persuade think-tank leaders to engage with certain debates, through grant competitions it could nudge them towards the issues it deemed important. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 578

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to work on donor steering and ‘quiet corruption’ of philanthropy — how funder competition structures nudge nonprofit agendas. — connects to: Think tanks function as elite proxy agents producing donor-favored analysis for media visibility.; Neoliberal funders treated policy influence as a vertically integrated production pipeline — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 127; Google funds think tanks to shape policy narratives in its favor — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 401 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: Could investigate how 85% of grants going to non-US think tanks shapes the global spread of the model.

Broader Connections

• Think tanks function as elite proxy agents producing donor-favored analysis for media visibility. #corroborates (0.80)
• Funders sought to shape MPS program and membership through their money #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1465
• Philanthropic funders controlled the political composition of academic advisory committees #exemplifies (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 756
• Big donors could dictate the MPS agenda and displace Hayek’s intellectual leadership #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 973
• Neoliberal funders treated policy influence as a vertically integrated production pipeline #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 127
• Google funds think tanks to shape policy narratives in its favor #exemplifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 401
• Unorthodox minority ideas depend on wealthy iconoclasts for funding #corroborates (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1475
• MPS members resisted donor interference in program decisions #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1466