Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)

Astroturf

John Quiggin tells us that from its name alone we should know to ignore everything that comes out of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute:

Crooked Timber: What would de Tocqueville think ? : Tim Lambert has more details on yet another Astroturf operation, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, recently in the news for attacking open source software and also a shill for the tobacco industry. A point of interest for me is that I don’t think you really need detailed evidence in cases like this (though of course, its handy to have the kind of chapter and verse Tim provides). Unless it’s devoted to the life and works of de Tocqueville, an outfit with a name like the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution is bound to be bogus....

So what is it about names like these that screams “Astroturf”? Most named institutes are either named in honour of the founder, or are explicitly partisan institutions whose name indicates their affiliation.... It’s not clear that those named would always agree with what is published in their names, but there’s some reasonable basis for presuming that this might be the case. By contrast, to choose a long-dead person with whom almost everyone has positive associations, then to put forward controversial positions in the name of that person is to be dishonest from the outset.