Overton Window

Hat tip to Matt Wardman (also posted on Liberal Conspiracy ) for highlighting this CiF piece by Richard Reeves of Demos wondering whether the internet might be killing off the rationale for think tanks. I'm not so sure. If anything the web has made such organizations more visible. Their ideas, more readily available to as many of us who can be bothered to read them, expose the poverty of policy discussion within the established political parties. For those of us who are somewhat tired of the choice between the behemoths that are our mainstream political parties who produce manifestos attempting to cover every area of life and with which, when it comes time to vote, we probably only agree with parts and have to hold our noses over their other policies, the think-tanks offer a more focussed discourse.

However, Reeves does have something of a point; in many cases the higher profile think-tanks are the ones as closely connected as charity law will allow to the political parties. The CiF article quotes a Facebook piece by Jim Knight MP where he says that think-tanks are "ultimately very elitist top-down institutions populated with very bright people who politicians sometimes seem to sub-contract their thinking to." Now, aside from the fact that I'd probably rather have "very bright people" making policy than generally self-important electoral spin driven politicians with psychopathic power seeking traits, this does undermine the independence from electoral considerations that think-tanks ought to be able to enjoy.

I am a great fan of the concept of the "Overton Window" which is a strategy of policy development mostly used by US right wing think-tanks but which can be applied by any. What happens is you take a spectrum of views on some issue and you will find opinions and thinking that is "way out there", unthinkable, at one end of the Overton Window and ideas that are actually policy being implemented at the other end of the window. To start shifting policy in a particular direction you "push" that window. You start looking at even more moon-bat ideas that make the previously unthinkable seem a little less scary. You do that again and again and the original mad idea becomes acceptable, then mainstream, then actual policy that gets implemented.

The Wikipedia entry on the Overton Window describes the steps as "Unthinkable" → "Radical" → "Acceptable" → "Sensible" → "Popular" → "Policy".

Think tanks occupy a part of this space. Previously I suspect they have prided themselves in thinking the unthinkable or at least the radical. It is true that in the UK they have tended to be less aggressive, and have perhaps seen themselves less working the Overton Window than "planting seeds" for development and further discussion and eventually policy drops out the bottom of the electoral parties (often literally I suspect!). But the point is that if they are not seen as linked to a party they can work the Overton Window more effectively because their lack of a party identity means nobody in electoral politics has to get all defensive about them.

Now, it may be that the think-tanks are moving away from really radical thinking and are becoming the "policy sub-contractors" Jim Knight writes about, maybe now occupying the "sensible" part of the spectrum. Those with party links are probably trying to move the discussion from "Sensible" to "Popular" so that "their" electoral party can then work up "Policy". And this is where the other internet players - bloggers especially perhaps - can fill a gap. Not only may we not have formal party links (and in any case as individuals we can always disagree with our chosen parties' ideas on issues with some impunity) but we also don't have to have any "responsibility" to anyone for our thoughts. People can ignore us. Even in our own parties. We can therefore indulge in flights of fancy that even the think-tanks, who have to raise the money to pay their way for example, could not contemplate. If there are enough of us out here spouting similar "Unthinkable" or "Radical" ideas then a think-tank may pick it up and develop them a bit more into "Acceptable" or "Sensible".

Perhaps now then it is the blogger that is on the far end of the Overton Window. That and things like the "Global Ideas Bank". Which, to me, is exactly how it should be. Ideas have to originate somewhere. Individuals now have a mechanism, via the internet, for publicizing our ideas, however outlandish, and I'm sure we all hope that one day party policy will spring spontaneously from one of our "good" ideas. But at the very least, we can hope that someone, perhaps a think-tank, will pick up on what's being said out here in the vastness of cyberspace and develop some of those ideas.

Actually, I'd like to see the think-tanks replace the political parties - how's that for "unthinkable"? Break down the behemoths into more specific policy area groups whose ideas we the voters can vote for directly. No more would the unreconstructed socialist have to hold their nose and vote for the amorphous electoral blob spanning neo-liberal eocnomics and authoritarian imperialism that is New Labour.  Nor the radical liberal the squidgy semi-left Lib Dems.  No longer the social conservative for the policy free New Con Party.  There would be something that really represented our opinions on different issues for which to vote and only once in parliament would they coalesce into functioning groupings of roughly like-minded groups. 

I might choose to vote for IEA economic policies, for Progressive Vision 's health policies, Liberty 's justice policies and so on. As I said, if an "elite" is going to claim the ability to rule over us "top-down", I'd probably rather it was the "very bright" elite of Jim Knight's comment rather than the populist psychopathic politicians. For the moment though, I guess we have to accept that for the vast majority of the voting public they currently seem to need those policies all packaged up into broad ranging manifestos and sound-bites they can vote for.

I have frequent run-ins with a particular individual who, like me, calls himself libertarian. He takes the view that libertarians have to be able to compromise to get libertarian ideas heard, and indeed they are launching such a compromise "lobby group" within the Lib Dems at the forthcoming conference (Liberal Vision - at the conference fringe, Monday 15th September, 1pm at the Marriott Highcliff Hotel). But to me that misses the point. It is the party itself, when adopting policy, that has to make the compromise along the spectrum of opinions put forward in the preceding debate on an issue. If the radicals themselves "water down" their message before the party hears it, it will not impact on that compromise. So for me, I'd far rather remain at the far end of the Overton Window and hope that my unadulterated , radical and sometimes even unthinkable ideas get taken into account when the debate is held and the compromise based on it.