Think Tanks and Civil Societies

Catalysts for Ideas and Action

R. Weaver, R. Weaver

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351472111
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Government and individual policymakers throughout the developed and developing world face the common problem of bringing expert knowledge to bear in government decision making. Policymakers need understandable, reliable, accessible, and useful information about the societies they govern. They also need to know how current policies are working, as well as possible alternatives and their likely costs and consequences. This expanding need has fostered the growth of independent public policy research organizations, commonly known as think tanks. Think Tanks and Civil Societies analyzes their growth, scope, and constraints, while providing institutional profiles of such organizations in every region of the world.Beginning with North America, contributors analyze think tank development past and future, consider their relationship to the general political culture, and provide detailed looks at such examples as the Heritage Foundation and the Institute for Research on Public Policy. A historical and subregional overview of think tanks throughout Europe notes the emphasis on European Union issues and points to a dramatic rise in the number and influence of free market institutes across the continent. Think tanks in Germany, Spain, and France are profiled with respect to national politics and cultures. Advanced industrial nations of northern Asia are compared and contrasted, revealing a greater need for independent policy voices. Moving to countries undergoing economic transition, contributors deal with challenges posed in Russia and the former Soviet bloc and their think tanks' search for influence, independence, and sustainability. Other chapters deal with the developing countries of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, finding that the number, quality, and independence of think tanks is largely determined by the degree of democracy in individual nations.

1

Think Tanks and Civil Societies in a Time of Change

R. Kent Weaver and James G. McGann

“Without comparisons to make, the mind does not know how to proceed.”

—Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville

Governments and individual policy makers throughout the world face the common problem of bringing expert knowledge to bear in governmental decision making. Policy makers need basic information about the societies they govern, about how current policies are working, as well as possible alternatives and their likely costs and consequences.

In developing and transitional countries, the basic data needed to make informed decisions does not exist and must be collected and analyzed so that it can be put into a form that is usable for parliamentarians and bureaucrats. Politicians and government officials in many developed countries, on the other hand, are confronted not with a lack of information but with an avalanche of information and paper. Indeed, policy makers are frequently besieged by more information than they can possibly use: complaints from constituents, reports from international agencies or civil society organizations, advice from bureaucrats, lobbying by interest groups, and exposes of the problems of current government programs in the popular or elite media, and so on. However, some of this information is unreliable, and some is tainted by the interests of those who are disseminating it. Some may be so technical that generalist policy makers cannot understand it or use it. Some information may be politically, financially, or administratively impractical. Other information may not be useful because it differs too radically from the worldview or ideology of those receiving it.

Thus, in both information rich and information poor societies, policy makers and others interested in the policy making process need information that is understandable, reliable, accessible, and useful. There are many potential sources for this information. Government agencies may provide it, as may university-based academic or research centers. International agencies are an other potential source of information, especially on such basic data about how the world works as trade flows. However, demands for information that can be used in policy making have also increasingly helped to foster the development of independent public policy research organizations, commonly known as think tanks.

These public policy research organizations first appeared in the U.S. and Europe at the turn of this century when organizations such as the Brookings Institution (1916), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1914), the Kiel Institute of World Economics (1914) and the Royal Institute for International Affairs (1920) were established. The term “think tank” was introduced in the United States during World War II to characterize the secure environment in which military and civilian experts were situated so that they could develop invasion plans and other military strategies. After the war, the term was applied to contract researchers, such as the Rand Corporation, that did a mixture of deep thinking and program evaluation for the military. The use of the term was expanded in the 1960s to describe other groups of experts who formulated various policy recommendations, including some quasi-academic research institutes concerned with the study of international relations and strategic questions. ¹ By the 1970s, the term “think tank” was applied to institutions focusing not only on foreign policy and defense strategy, but also on current political, economic, and social issues.

It is not just the information providing function of think tanks that has captured the interest of analysts and politicians, however, but also their potential to provide an important element of what is known as civil society or the third sector. ² The third sector concept has been developed to help distinguish nonprofit, nongovernmental institutions from the state sector and the private for profit sector or to characterize what Nancy Baraza of Kenya describes as “[t]hat space that is neither government nor business, occupied by citizens who take actions responsive to their needs.” ³ There has been a great deal of discussion about the significance of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to the democratization process. ⁴ The importance of these institutions to the civil society movement is recognized in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Articles 19 and 20) where the right to freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and freedom of forming associations is clearly stipulated.

Some observers believe that think tanks fall in the gray areas of the civil society concept since they are organized to, at least indirectly, advise and/or assist government. It is our contention, however, that think tanks are an integral part of the civil society and serve as an important catalyst for ideas and action in emerging and advanced democracies around the world. Think tanks take many forms, as do the institutions that comprise civil society. It is for this reason that we quite consciously use the plural of civil society not tresisular to emphasize this reality. What they all have in common is that they are nonprofit, independent of the state, and dedicated to transforming policy problems into appropriate public policies. As civil society organizations think tanks play a number of critical roles, including: (1) playing a mediating function between the government and the public; (2) identifying, articulating, and evaluating current or emerging issues, problems or proposals; (3) transforming ideas and problems into policy issues; (4) serving as an informed and independent voice in policy debates; and (5) providing a constructive forum for the exchange of ideas and information between key stakeholders in the policy formulation process.

Once found almost exclusively in the advanced industrial democracies of the West, think tanks now provide information and advice for policy makers and civil society representatives in countries as diverse as India, Lebanon, Chile, Bulgaria, Germany, Senegal, and Thailand. There has been a veritable explosion in recent years of think tanks since the 1970s. In some regions, such as eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, the great burst in think tank activity did not begin until the late 1980s or even more recently. Today there are more than three thousand think tanks around the world, in almost every country that has more than a few million inhabitants and at least a modicum of intellectual freedom. ⁵ They include a wide range of privately organized groups of experts who perform research in a variety of disciplines and inform policy makers and the general public of their research findings. As think tanks have expanded geographically, they have had to adapt to new conditions. In Asia, Africa, and Latin America (and later central Europe and the former Soviet Union) think tanks have faced a different set of challenges that have forced them to develop innovative ways to maintain their operations. Most countries in these regions do not have strong philanthropic traditions or tax laws that encourage private philanthropy; therefore, think tanks in these countries are primarily funded by governments, political parties, or international donors. This makes these institutions particularly dependent on sources of support that may be very unstable. The lack of independent support also raises questions about both the long-term viability of these institutions and their ability to provide truly independent research and analysis. Nevertheless, many think tanks in these regions have attained a highly visible presence and participate actively in their countries’ policy debates.

The purpose of this volume is to chart and try to understand the extraordinary explosion of think tank activity around the globe. Are think tanks really a common category of organizations, or perhaps instead a mislabeled grab bag that misleads as much as it reveals? How are they organized and financed? How do they set their agendas? How unique are the challenges that confront think tanks in the developing and transitional countries? Are the new think tanks springing up in these regions similar in kind to those in the developed world, or are they fundamentally different types of organizations? How sustainable are these organizations likely to be over the long term? How effective are they in bringing expertise into the policy process? What steps should funding entities take to nurture their development and growth? These are the major questions that this volume seeks to address.

Think Tanks: An Ambiguous Category

Before going any further, however, it is important to address the most fundamental of questions: what are think tanks, and how are they different from other organizations? Defining think tanks, and establishing clear boundaries as to which organizations fit within the category, is one of the most conceptually difficult tasks in analyzing these organizations. ⁶ At the broadest level, one can say that think tanks are institutions that provide public policy research, analysis, and advice. However, that definition casts the net very broadly. Many interest groups, university research centers, and other civil society organizations carry out policy research and advice as one of their activities, if not the central one. Many government agencies also offer policy research and advice as a major function.

In order to narrow the scope of inquiry, the term has frequently been limited (especially in British and American usage) to policy research organizations that: (1) are independent of government and universities; and (2) operate on a nonprofit basis. This definition, however, has been criticized as far too narrow. Diane Stone and Mark Garnett argue that “the notion that a think tank requires independence or autonomy from the state and private interests in order to be ‘free-thinking’ is a peculiarly Anglo-American predilection that does not travel well into other cultures.” ⁷ Certainly organizations that are almost totally dependent upon government contracts for their revenues, as are many organizations to which the think tank label is routinely applied, cannot be considered fully autonomous. In some continental European countries, notably Germany and the Netherlands, think tanks frequently have close financial and personnel ties to political parties. Moreover, in countries where sponsorship by a government ministry is a legal necessity for a think tank to exist, excluding organizations with an organizational link to government would convey the misleading impression that those regions host no think tanks at all. Similarly, in regions where resources for policy research are extremely scarce, linkages to university or contracting relationships with the private sector may be the only way to cover a research institute’s core personnel and facilities costs.

In this study, we will pursue a middle course in defining think tanks. We begin with the core definition of think tanks as policy research organizations that have significant autonomy from government and from societal interests such as firms, interest groups, and political parties. However, we also recognize that autonomy is a relative rather than an absolute term, and that the operational definition of think tanks must differ from region to region. In the regional overview chapters that follow, the authors vary their definitions according to regional circumstances, while noting where their boundary drawing differs from the narrower Anglo-American usage.

Roles for Think Tanks

Just as important as establishing boundaries for the think tank concept is understanding what think tanks do. The briefest answer is that think tanks may do several different things, but that not all think tanks do the same thing. One role performed by many think tanks, especially those with staffs composed primarily of Ph.D.s in the social sciences, is carrying out basic research on policy problems and policy solutions in a fashion similar to that done by university-based researchers. Research on policy problems may address questions like: What are the challenges that two countries face in reunifying (like East and West Germany) or splitting up (like the Czech Republic and Slovakia)? How is the deregulation of financial markets or the privatization of transport likely to affect the range and price of services that are offered? What sorts of electoral rules and representative institutions are most conducive to democracy and stability in societies that are divided along ethnic, religious, or linguistic lines? How significant is the threat of nuclear proliferation among developing countries?

A second role performed at many think tanks is providing advice on immediate policy concerns that are being considered by government officials. This can occur at several stages in the policy making process and through a number of channels. Think tanks may organize briefings and hold seminars for policy makers and the media. They may publish issue briefs on proposed or pending legislation and their staffs may testify in legislative hearings. Advice giving may also take the form of opinion pieces in newspaper commentary pages. What distinguishes this second role from the first one is that think tanks draw on an existing stock of expertise rather than performing original research. The resulting policy advice is frequently provided in a brief, accessible, and informal format, usually in response to very time-sensitive demands.

A third role frequently performed by think tanks is evaluation of government programs. This research may answer questions like: Which of two potential weapons systems being considered by the military is the most efficient expenditure of defense procurement dollars? Are local governments delivering services such as education and garbage collection in a relatively efficient manner compared to other municipalities of similar size? While these evaluations can take many forms, the most important is probably formal studies commissioned by the government agencies themselves. Think tanks frequently disseminate evaluation studies, like their basic policy research and immediate policy advice, in multiple ways that are intended to increase their accessibility to policy makers and the public. Of course, strong evaluation studies require both adequate data on how well government programs work as well as a willingness on the part of government to risk having its programs exposed as failures. Neither quality is in rich supply in countries that are information poor and have weak traditions of government accountability.

A fourth role that think tanks may perform is to serve as facilitators of issue networks and the exchange of ideas. Rather than a written product, the key elements here are verbal exchanges and personal relationships. Since most politicians are not specialists, they may have neither the inclination nor the desire to absorb detailed technical studies of an issue, but by interaction with experts, they may come to share those experts’ general perspectives on a policy problem. Think tanks often accomplish this by engaging policy makers and the public through briefings, seminars, and conferences.

Fifth, think tanks may serve as suppliers of personnel to government and as a place for politicians and policy makers who are out of power to recharge their batteries—or as a simple sinecure. Because think tanks serve as repositories for policy-oriented expertise, they play a very important human resource function for new governments that are filling policy making positions from outside the bureaucracy. Think tanks may also help train the next generation of policy makers through internship and fellowship programs.

A final role frequently performed by think tank staff members is interpretation of policies and current events for the electronic and print media. ⁸ Unlike the opinion pieces mentioned earlier, think tanks’ interpretive role usually is performed on the news pages of newspapers and in “sound bites” for radio or television news broadcasts. Giving ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Editor's Note
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1. Think Tanks and Civil Societies in a Time of Change
• Chapter 2. Think Tanks in North America
• Chapter 3. The Heritage Foundation
• Chapter 4. Institute for Research on Public Policy
• Chapter 5. Think Tanks in Western Europe
• Chapter 6. French Public Policy Research Institutes and Their Political Impact as Another Illustration of the French Exception
• Chapter 7. Experiences of a Multidimensional Think Tank: The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
• Chapter 8. Think Tanks in Spain and Portugal: Searching for Relevance
• Chapter 9. Northeast Asian Think Tanks: Toward Building Capacity for More Democratic Societies
• Chapter 10. The Korean Institute of International Studies
• Chapter 11. From Dependency to the Market: The Uncertain Future for Think Tanks in Central and Eastern Europe
• Chapter 12. The Liberal Estate: Reflections on the Politics of Think Tanks in Central and Eastern Europe
• Chapter 13. Think Tanks in the Former Soviet Union
• Chapter 14. The Economic Research Center
• Chapter 15. Policy Making Beyond the Politics of Conflict: Civil Society Think Tanks in the Middle East and North Africa
• Chapter 16. Think Tanks in Transition—Center for Palestine Research and Studies: A Case Study
• Chapter 17. Dynamics of Think Tank Development in Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea
• Chapter 18. Think Tanks in Singapore
• Chapter 19. Think Tanks in South Asia: An Overview
• Chapter 20. Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research: A Leading Think Tank in Asia
• Chapter 21. Think Tanks in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Chapter 22. An Analysis of Francophone Economic Research Centers in Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Senegal
• Chapter 23. Think Tanks in Nigeria
• Chapter 24. Think Tanks in Latin America
• Chapter 25. Instituto APOYO
• Chapter 26. Think Tanks in Brazil: The Case of Instituto Brasileiro de Economia as an Illustration
• About the Authors
• Index