The battle of ideas

From the "Lexington" column in The Economist

America now far outclasses Europe in its ability to produce intellectuals with root-and-branch schemes for improving society. There are lots of reasons for this. One is that America is much less consensus-orientated than Europe, especially when it comes to policymaking. ...

Another reason is that policy intellectuals can make a much better living in America than Europe. America has been fabulously successful at providing its projectors with Grand Academies in the form of lavishly-funded think-tanks, well over 100 of them in Washington alone. And American projectors have been superb at getting their message across.