Blog
Archivo de artículos publicados entre 2009 y 2026 sobre think tanks, comunicación política, asuntos públicos, economía y sociedad.
12 de octubre de 2026
Think tanks: entre el saber y la influencia
Qué son los think tanks, cómo han evolucionado en algo más de un siglo y por qué la tensión entre conocimiento e influencia define su naturaleza.
20 de junio de 2017
Comunicación política, nuevas dinámicas y ciudadanía permanente
Acaba de salir un libro colectivo sobre comunicación política, coordinado por Rubén Sánchez Medero, en el que he podido colaborar con un breve capítulo dedicado a revisar el concepto de comunicación institucional.
16 de marzo de 2014
Davos Meeting 2014: Nice to meet us
From one side, to the other. As darker is the activity of the Bilderberg Meetings, this is bigger the sort of Hollywood show members of the World Economic Forum set up every year in Davos.
10 de junio de 2013
The Bilderberg Meetings: A Matter of Transparency
The think tank environment is not a popular issue for a majority of citizens. As they are elitist political institutions, individuals do not know what are their goals. Therefore, it is usual that when somebody out from politics read something about think tanks
5 de junio de 2013
Think Tanks in the World: The State of the Art (II)
The 2012 Global Go To Think Tanks Report and Policy Advice is the most updated source we have (apart from books and academic papers which are published less regularly) to know the evolution of think tanks. It is based in a survey conducted among journalists, e
28 de mayo de 2013
Think Tanks in the World: The State of the Art (I)
Supporters of think tanks say they have a enormous influence in the public policy marketplace. But the fact is that their stardom is not as important as they should. Many people know nothing about the world of think tanks. Even they are not able to explain the
27 de marzo de 2013
A Future for the Welfare State?
The Crisis has accelerated the defeat of the partisans of the traditional Welfare State. It seems there are no arguments to support public services, even the most essential. However, this mantra of the great capitalism is not shared by the public sentiment.
1 de febrero de 2013
The Perfect Politocrat
This is not a time for leaders, it is said. The Heroes a fallen society waits for are not coming. Our leaders are manufactured and educated by the great Economicburó who governs the world on behalf of these spurious gods called ‘The Markets’. They are vanish l
12 de octubre de 2011
Las funestas consecuencias de la «Diplomacia del Hijoputa»
Muchas veces las anécdotas se atribuyen a personas equivocadas, pero para lo que viene al caso, bien me sirve utilizar esta versión que creo haber leído u oído hace unos años. Cuentan que en una ocasión se hablaba en los círculos diplomáticos norteamericanos d
27 de septiembre de 2011
La nueva sociedad ya está aquí
Olvidada ya la desconfianza que la burbuja tecnológica generó sobre las posibilidades de Internet, asistimos en el presente a una nueva etapa en el desarrollo de la Red.
24 de agosto de 2011
Tiempo de perplejidad
A pesar de que algunos nos avisaron de que nuestro modelo político y social se agotaba, parece que cada uno de los nuevos acontecimientos que apuntalan el dictamen nos sorprende como si fuera un terremoto imprevisto de esos que tenemos últimamente por donde yo
6 de julio de 2011
La vida en pantalla
Resulta ya demasiado obvio decir que vivimos rodeados de pantallas. Casi invertimos más tiempo en ellas, en la curiosidad sobre las vidas de otros, en nuestra propia vida proyectada y a menudo falseada, que en el contacto convencional con los demás.
5 de mayo de 2011
Poor labour policies in Europe
One of the most ugly faces of the economic crisis is unemployment. There are countries in the South of Europe where the unemployment rate is around the 25 %. In the last four years we have broken the raising line we followed from the nineties. In fact, many of
20 de marzo de 2011
Donde hay cálculo político, falta realismo democrático
La clave la daba hoy el filósofo Daniel Innerarity en una entrevista en El Español: «La política está hecha de aspiraciones y renuncias. Los comunistas quieren nacionalizar la banca, pero si gobiernan, seguramente no puedan hacerlo. Si un nacionalista español
27 de septiembre de 2010
La cultura de la globalización
Con permiso de Ignacio Ramonet, Director de Le Monde Diplomatique, y sus compañeros del Foro Social Mundial, creemos que ya podemos decir que la globalización ha dejado de ser un fenómeno económico para tomar una dimensión social e incluso Cultural. Y de acue
20 de enero de 2010
The Biomedical Field: Extending the Health of the Economy
It is stimulating (Please not to confuse with stimulus plans or whatever) to discover the strength of new approaches to the progress of economy and the human being in general terms. This is the case of the biomedical field, which is opening a new frontier to t
31 de diciembre de 2009
The Need of a Neutral Fiscal Authority
Taxes! Taxes! Everybody hates them but they are as necessary as the air we breathe. However, it is hard to know taxation is growing all the time, beyond the good or bad economic environment. Modern Democracy is a thirsty monster who always asks for more money,
1 de octubre de 2009
A New Economic Paradigm: Anarconomy
We can decide whether to maintain our old and no perfect market economy or looking for new paradigms. It is not an easy task as Masters of the Universe prefer to live in cyclical crisis which is very profitable for them. If economy shows a positive balance, th
12 de agosto de 2009
The Obama’s Scenarios
The Brookings Institution has compared the performance of the Obama’s Government with past Cabinets in How We’re Doing: A Composite Index of Global and National Trends. There are some aspects that are being performed worse, while others offer a good face. Howe
29 de julio de 2009
Stimulus to Stimulate Public Debt
The short term and populist politics our politicians are used to practise is delaying the end the global crisis. They are not the only factor of the solution, but their fear to face the real problems of the economic system is causing so much pain in our societ
26 de julio de 2009
The European Union and the Soft Power
When the EU began its big enlargement, many people thought it was rising the new superpower, also in military terms. USA was not going to be the only policeman on the block. However, leaders of the EU have preferred to maintain the influence in the field of so
23 de julio de 2009
John Blundell knows best: Independence of think tanks
In the last post I was reflecting on the nature of think tanks and suddenly, I have found another comment, more authoritative than my writings, about the factor of independence to the survival of a real think tank. It comes from John Blundell, current General
20 de junio de 2009
The core concept of think tank
Credit crunch has also brought a negative situation to the funding resources of many think tanks. The environment is being worse for those institutes that receive the bigger part of their funds from corporations and act more as lobbies than as independent rese
17 de junio de 2009
Freedom to trade
I cannot explain better: «The specter of protectionism is rising. It is always a dangerous and foolish policy, but it is especially dangerous at a time of economic crisis, when it threatens to damage the world economy. Protectionism’s peculiar premise is tha
11 de junio de 2009
Solutions to avoid credit crunch: control of mortgage lending
It is easy to propose solutions after crisis have come, but also it is necessary to think about if we want to avoid a new arrival of chaos. Mortgage lending has been one of the main factors of the financial nightmare and we need to improve the control over the
20 de mayo de 2009
Youth and prosperity
Young people is our hope. This is one the reasons why we have children and work to give them a better life. We expect that when they become adult they will take the baton we pass as getting older. An that they will perform a better race. However, I am not ve
5 de mayo de 2009
Broken promises for Africa
It is always Africa. The forgotten continent. It could be an empty lost planet, like Mars, but there are millions and of persons fighting to survive in its beautifully sad lands. You can see the metaphor of Africa in a sequence of The Constant Gardener, when
21 de abril de 2009
The End of the Crisis is not coming
Politicians say we do not have to lose our hope. May be it is the only advice they can offer as they do not have any other solution apart from increasing and increasing public spending. Therefore, we can understand why they highlight any minimum change their w
16 de abril de 2009
The Renaissance of the Nuclear Threat
Among other also bad consequences, economic crisis is playing a key role in the growing weakness of the public debate. We understand that political firemen are very busy looking for a a way to solve the financial nightmare but it is not healthy the rest of us
4 de marzo de 2009
Pessimism about democracy?
Western democracy has proved to be the best of the political regimes mankind has tried in centuries. It does not mean it is a perfect system, but we have not found anything better. However, many people of the most advanced democracies think that the dream of e
2 de marzo de 2009
Property rights, freedom and prosperity
In our times, it is difficult to defend communism. Apart from the monk communities, nobody is able to share everything with others. The socialist experiments of the 20th Century are a far and away nightmare and there is no person who wants to repeat. We have r
27 de febrero de 2009
The secret of good budgeting
The budget is the main weapon of any politician. When he gets a government post, he makes the big difference because it is able to manage huge resources of money. It does not matter whether the economy is healthy. He always can use the deficit. Nobody is able
26 de febrero de 2009
A New Public Diplomacy Strategy for the United States
We need the power of America, but it is hard to recognize it. Specially among citizens of Western Europe, people do not have a good opinion of American foreign policy. The situation varies if the White House incumbent is a member of the Democrats, but in gener
25 de febrero de 2009
Towards a New Republicanism
Although the economic crisis seems to prevent from thinking about other public policy questions, sometimes it is healthy to reflecting on other deeper matters. What kind of political regime do we want? We are aware that political systems in Western democracies
24 de febrero de 2009
The Official History of Privatisation in Britain: Was There Any Think Tank Influence?
One of the most intriguing things of the think tank phenomenon is to determine if these research and policy action units have a real influence in the development of politics. In fact, most of them assure that they have a certain persuasive power over the decis
23 de febrero de 2009
A New National Security Strategy: Cooperation, Visibility and Good Bye to the Cold War
A long time ago, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America that were going to sacrifice freedom in favour of security. It is the logical evolution of democracy, where citizens are frightened by the threats of insurgent people who want to destroy thei
22 de febrero de 2009
Why the Government will not solve the crisis
I do not share all the principles classical liberalism defend. It is probably because I do not believe in a perfect man, nor in a road to perfection. Imperfection is in our genome. However, in the think tanks environment there are very intelligent people who p
21 de febrero de 2009
Conservatives of the World, Stand Up!
The Obama Presidency is not enjoying the best support from the Conservative think tanks front. In the middle of the crisis, the are afraid of the arrival of a new and stronger version of the damned Welfare State. If we did not know that in fact, the Welfare St
19 de febrero de 2009
If China is in economic trouble, bad expectations
China has been the great icon of globalisation. His powerful economic development was a sign of the prosperity of the decade. Every country made business with China and this country was the huge consumero f economic resources. When the financial crisis starte
18 de febrero de 2009
What about food?
In the fat Developed countries we did not use to care about food. In general terms, we are having more food sources than we need and we only have to examine statistics on obesity to confirm food was not a matter of serious concern for rich nations. Countrymen
17 de febrero de 2009
Will the EU model survive?
Every country is very busy triying to cope with its economic and financial difficulties. For this reason, there are issues that have lost their prominent position in the political agenda. It seems to be the case of the European Union project, which is living i
17 de febrero de 2009
Women in management: a convenient trend
The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies offers another interesting article on the future of work. In this occasion, it focuses on the arrival of women to management tasks, but not as a fashionable momentum. On the one hand, the failure of an economic syst
15 de febrero de 2009
Knowledge workers in 2020
As Developing Economies growth, they are reducing the distance in standard of living and in the competences of their workers. Western countries have taken advantage of better education in the last 50 years, but the situation is changing. Now there are more peo
14 de febrero de 2009
Rethinking the social care system
The social security and care system is probably the best achievement the European Western democracies have got. It is not easy to maintain because of the increasing costs it have, as population is getting older and people expect a better quality of service. In
12 de febrero de 2009
Fundación Ideas, is this really a think tank?
In the last post I argued over the question of what is an authentic think tank and I concluded that the Political Party think tanks do not deserve that name. I know it is a controversial issue, but I prefer to say that this type of organization does not emerge
11 de febrero de 2009
Political Party think tanks are not think tanks
A common problem in young disciplines of Social Sciences, like the study of the construction of political discourse is that scholars and researchers do not agree in the basics. Comparing to Experimental Sciences, Philosophy or Humanities, more recent academic
11 de febrero de 2009
The cost of energy strategy
Only two years ago, when the prices of oil rose faster than desired, no body rejected the need to move to other energy sources. Now, another consequence of crisis is a hard decrease in the oil prices and a new state of the art over the question. At this moment
9 de febrero de 2009
Conscious Consumers of public policy
When I started to study the think tanks phenomenon, one of the first organizations I visited was the Social Market Foundation. It was and it is a small socialdemocratic think tank. At that time, one of its outstanding members was Robert Skidelski, biographer o
8 de febrero de 2009
Conclusion of the Last Davos Meeting: nothing
When antiglobalization movements started to attack the millionaires’ winter holydays in Davos, the managers of World Economic Forum launched a powerful propaganda and PR campaign(Is there any difference?) to show the supposedly gently face of capitalist bosses
7 de febrero de 2009
Tomorrow’s (Progressive) Capitalism
It is clear to us. We are not happy of some consequences capitalism has on us, poor people, but we would not like to return to obscure socialism. Marx and Lenin and their colleagues are interesting icons for a fashion show, but no body wants to believe in the
6 de febrero de 2009
The revival of Hayek
I understand that in crisis times, everybody goes to the essential ideas or the founding authors. In the case of political economy, we see an interesting battle between the Keynes and Hayek fans. One group tries to reinvent the Keynes principles on public sect
5 de febrero de 2009
Another hard time for Africa
International economic crisis has taken apart other big problems, like the weak global order. Sometimes I think Mr Bush and his Halliburtons have created the financial nightmare to move the political and media agenda from the disaster of war against terrorism
3 de febrero de 2009
Economists Rebellion
«Free market could be a son of a bitch but it is our son of a bitch» Of course this is not a real quote from one passionate liberal economist, but it could be. At least if you read the statement The Cato Institute has promoted to oppose to the economic package
2 de febrero de 2009
Almost Two trillion of deficit in the US Budget
A scholar of the American Enterprise Institute, Kevin A. Hasset, writes in Enjoy Stimulus Now, Pay Your $14,000 Share Later that it is expected Federal Budget Deficit of 1.7 trillion. Compared to the Bush Era, who championed de deficit course, it means that Mr
1 de febrero de 2009
Think tanks also experience the crisis
Everybody knows that charity projects are the first victims of a financial crisis as donors cannot cope with their help. It happens also to management areas like advertising, public relations and philanthropy (If we can think of something called philanthropy i
1 de febrero de 2009
If recession is not the problem…
One of the most outstanding advocates of the free market during the last ten years has been the Swedish Johan Norberg. Since he published In Defense of Global Capitalism, a best-seller of the new liberalism, Mr Norberg argues in every forum about the need to f
31 de enero de 2009
Do Think Tanks Matter?
t is the title of a Donald Abelson’s book where he asked himself about the utility and relevance of the think tank phenomenon. In the middle of one of the deepest economic crisis the market economy has ever had, I think it is a good point to start.