Catalyst for ideas and action
Data Dissemination As noted above, information is common but knowledge is rare. Policymakers are frequently besieged by more information than they can possibly use: complaints from constituents, reports from international agencies or civil society organizations, advice from bureaucrats, lobbying by interest groups, exposes of the problems of current government programs by the popular or elite media, and so forth. The problem is that much of this information is unsystematic, some is unreliable, and some is tainted by the interests of those who are disseminating it. Some may be so technical or simply voluminous that generalist policymakers cannot understand or use it. Some information may be politically, financially, or administratively impractical, or not in the interests of the policymakers who must make decisions. Other information may not be useful because it differs too radically from the world view or ideology of those receiving it. Policymakers and others interested in the policymaking process, in short, need information that is understandable, reliable, accessible, and redacted for use in reasonable time-scales. There are many potential sources for this information. Government agencies may provide it, and university-based academics or research centers may do so as well. International agencies are another potential source of information, especially on such basic data about how the world works as trade flows. But think-tanks can do it, too, and an excellent example comes from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The U.S. budget is a truly monstrous document. It is very unlikely that anyone ever reads the entire thing. Indeed, summarizing the budget so that it is intelligible and reasonably interesting, is a difficult but necessary task. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has been performing such a task for several years. Staffed by experienced specialists, the summaries of the budget prepared each year are especially useful to members of the press, who have to report on the budget but have little time to read it themselves. As important, the government itself, in its various interested agencies, is forced to rely on think-tank summaries because no one has time to digest the entire document to see what it portends for public policy as a whole. And, oddly enough, government agencies are more inclined to trust a think-tank, even one that admits an ideological agenda --it is liberal, and
ETHOS GUBERNAMENTAL
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