Sixteenth-century Spain was plagued by self-appointed policy entrepreneurs

Evidence

There were considerable differences of opinion between the various advisers to the Crown on this problem. For any course of action, advantages and disadvantages could be foreseen. This debate about the possible remedies is preserved in the official papers of the Consejo de Estado and of the other state bodies engaged in trying to settle the question. In addition, alongside such state papers some position papers (pareceres) volunteered by “experts” have survived, too. We must beware of taking all these pareceres seriously. “Projector” used to be the term in English for such self-appointed consultants and purveyors of projects—it is a pity that the word has unfortunately fallen out of use, as we need it in the twenty-first century as much as it was needed in the sixteenth. Such arbitristas (that was the Spanish word) might be mere cranks, or people pushing some sectional interest, or even well-informed specialists. Thus Pedro Ponce de Le´on, knowing from his long service to the Crown that galley slaves, the motive power of Mediterranean naval fleets, were always in short supply, put up the bright idea of pressing all Morisco males between 18 and 40 (Dom´ınguez and Vincent 1978, 70). — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1180

Categorization

• DEFINE: Definitions of ‘pareceres’, ‘arbitristas’, and the obsolete English ‘projector’ for self-appointed policy consultants — useful conceptual vocabulary for policy history.
• SEED: The ‘projector’ as a sixteenth-century species of policy entrepreneur is a perfect essay frame for modern think-tank culture and tech punditry.