Think Tanks and Civil Societies Research Project

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 the growth, scope, and constraints of think tanks, while providing institutional profiles of such organizations in every region of the world.

The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Project has assembled some of the leading scholars and practitioners from think tanks and universities around the world (28 authors from 21 countries) to conduct the first comprehensive assessment of independent public policy research, analysis and public engagement institutes and the role they play in nurturing and sustaining civil societies. As sources of ongoing policy analysis to enhance the development of civil societies around the world, think tanks need to be involved in a constant process of self examination. This awareness will enable them to meet the needs of the societies of the countries in which they operate at the start of a new century. This volume will help policymakers, political analyst and funders begin this task. The book is available in cloth or paper from Transaction Publishers.

Editors

James G. McGann is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and is president of McGann Associates, a program and management consulting firm specializing in the challenges facing think tanks, international organizations, and philanthropic institutions. He is the author of The Competition for Dollars, Scholars and Influence in the Public Policy Research Industry. [read more about James McGann]

R. Kent Weaver is a senior fellow in the Government Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of Ending Welfare as We Know It, Automatic Government: The Politics of Indexation, and The Politics of Industrial Change: Railway Policy in North America.