Think tanks and strategic policy-making: the contribution of think tanks to policy advisory systems

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• 作者：Bert Fraussen ; Darren Halpin
• 关键词：Think tanks ; Strategic policy ; making ; Policy advisory systems ; Policy advice ; Policy capacity
• 刊名：Policy Sciences
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：March 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：50
• 期：1
• 页码：105-124
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
• 刊物主题：Political Science; Economic Policy; Public Administration;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1573-0891
• 卷排序：50

文摘

Think tanks have proliferated in most Western democracies over the past three decades and are often considered to be increasingly important actors in public policy. Still, their precise contribution to public policy remains contested. This paper takes the existing literature in a new direction by focusing on the capacity of think tanks to contribute to strategic policy-making and assessing their particular role within policy advisory systems. We propose that strategic policy-making capacity requires three critical features: high levels of research capacity, substantial organizational autonomy and a long-term policy horizon. Subsequently, we assess the potential of think tanks to play this particular role in policy-making, using empirical evidence from structured interviews with a set of prominent Australian think tanks.