Proliferation

Government has two businesses. It provides services--education, medical care, defence. Citizens use these services, which are tangible in the sense that teachers, doctors, and soldiers can be seen in public places performing their duties. Government also conduct and commission research: in this sense, there is no service other than words spoken at a seminar or symposium or published as a working paper, in a journal, or in a book. In this sense government parallels the work of universities and think tanks; and one of the trends in Spanish government since the transition to democracy has been the founding of publicly funded think tanks, often in tandem with new museums.

How many think tanks is enough? How many is too many? How many can a society afford? It's hard to know. A think tank can do good work, employ useless but well-connected people and do little work, or occupy the middle ground. Some (like Barcelona CIDOB) have built up an impressive international reputation. The European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMED), a Catalan initiative and, frankly, a vanity project of former Catalan premier Jordi Pujol's, overcame early allegations of nepotism and a series of name changes to make a respectable niche for itself. Like Madrid's Casa de América, a showcase for Latin American countries, the IEMED is now run by a consortium: all three levels of government contribute to the institute's budget. Indeed, the IEMED only needed a name change and an expanded public program to dovetail with Spain's other two casas: Casa África and Casa Asia. Their missions, funding, and models of governance are all broadly similar. One notes in passing that there is also a Casa Árabe, as well as a Casa Sefarad, so few bases had been left uncovered.

How many specifically Mediterranean think tanks can a society afford? Apparently, two. The Casa Mediterráneo, set up in 2009 as yet another vanity project, has a mission that overlaps with the IEMED's. But the IEMED hadn't adopted the 'casa' brand and will remain a think tank. Casa Mediterráneo will be a think tank plus. For the time being, it is of note because the mother of its political godmother, Leire Pajín, is on one of the boards, and because the English of the website is of very poor--if it were a university-level English student, it would fail. If they paid anyone or anything for these translations, they should hang their heads in shame. There has been no quality control whatsoever. Here are a few gems:

"And in this context Casa Mediterráneo has born"
"Casa Mediterráneo throws towards the present and more contemporary world to be a bridge"
"Casa Mediterráneo participates the next 4th March in the Anna Lindh Forum 2010 at Barcelone, a meeting assisted by more than 500 organizations "
"The department Culture and Heritage intends to reveal the contemporary sociocultural realities of the riverside countries through the celebration of activities, by inviting the Mediterranean citizenship and the civil society to know better the cultures involving, mostly unknown."