Brookings Institution

The Brookings Institution is a public policy research organization at 1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington, DC. For the 2023 tax year it reported total revenue of $89.4 million and total assets of$537.6 million. Cecilia Elena Rouse is its president.

Founding

Brookings traces itself to the Institute for Government Research, founded in 1916 by a group of government reformers including Robert S. Brookings and described by the Institution as the first private organization devoted to the fact-based study of national public policy. In 1927 IGR merged with the Institute of Economics, founded in 1922, and the Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government, founded in 1923, to form the Brookings Institution under its present name.

Documented early output includes IGR scholar William Franklin Willoughby’s drafting of the legislation that became the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which created the first U.S. Bureau of the Budget, and Lewis Meriam’s 1928 survey of conditions in Indian Country, which the Institution notes was cited by Justice Neil Gorsuch in a 2023 Supreme Court opinion.

Stated mission

Brookings states that it “equips decisionmakers with nonpartisan research and policy strategies to create a more prosperous and secure country and world,” organised around four stated goals: developing economic growth strategies, expanding economic and social opportunity, revitalizing U.S. democratic institutions, and advancing peace and security worldwide.

Relevance to digital political discourse

Brookings publishes research on technology and governance, including work on platform regulation, artificial intelligence policy and election security, and distributes it free through its own site alongside podcasts and video, without a paywall.