Overview

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 constaints, while providing institutional profiles of such organizations in every region of the world.

Full Product Details

9780765809520

Table of Contents

Reviews

Editors McGann (Foreign Policy Research Institute) and Weaver (Brookings) espouse the thesis that public policy research organizations ( think tanks ) are needed not only to provide governmental decisionmakers with reliable and understandable information but also to serve the larger civil society as catalysts for ideas and action... The editors hope to encourage the emergence of think tanks reflecting particular national environments rather than a universal template and to provide managers, governments, and donors with a clearer understanding of how think tanks and civil societies interact in times of rapid change. Though specialized, this work should be in all large public and university libraries. --J. A. Rhodes, Choice The book correctly elevates the visibility of think tanks in scholarly understandings of policy making and civil society. In its entirety, the book elaborates a valuable, sophisticated and complex framework for understanding how research and ideas are packaged and promoted to affect politics... --Canadian Journal of Political Science Editors McGann (Foreign Policy Research Institute) and Weaver (Brookings) espouse the thesis that public policy research organizations ( think tanks ) are needed not only to provide governmental decisionmakers with reliable and understandable information but also to serve the larger civil society as catalysts for ideas and action... The editors hope to encourage the emergence of think tanks reflecting particular national environments rather than a universal template and to provide managers, governments, and donors with a clearer understanding of how think tanks and civil societies interact in times of rapid change. Though specialized, this work should be in all large public and university libraries. --J. A. Rhodes, Choice The book correctly elevates the visibility of think tanks in scholarly understandings of policy making and civil society. In its entirety, the book elaborates a valuable, sophisticated and complex framework for understanding how research and ideas are packaged and promoted to affect politics... --Canadian Journal of Political Science -Editors McGann (Foreign Policy Research Institute) and Weaver (Brookings) espouse the thesis that public policy research organizations (-think tanks-) are needed not only to provide governmental decisionmakers with reliable and understandable information but also to serve the larger civil society as -catalysts for ideas and action...- The editors hope to encourage the emergence of think tanks reflecting particular national environments rather than a universal template and to provide managers, governments, and donors with a clearer understanding of how think tanks and civil societies interact in times of rapid change. Though specialized, this work should be in all large public and university libraries.- --J. A. Rhodes, Choice -The book correctly elevates the visibility of think tanks in scholarly understandings of policy making and civil society. In its entirety, the book elaborates a valuable, sophisticated and complex framework for understanding how research and ideas are packaged and promoted to affect politics...- --Canadian Journal of Political Science

Editors McGann (Foreign Policy Research Institute) and Weaver (Brookings) espouse the thesis that public policy research organizations ( think tanks ) are needed not only to provide governmental decisionmakers with reliable and understandable information but also to serve the larger civil society as catalysts for ideas and action... The editors hope to encourage the emergence of think tanks reflecting particular national environments rather than a universal template and to provide managers, governments, and donors with a clearer understanding of how think tanks and civil societies interact in times of rapid change. Though specialized, this work should be in all large public and university libraries. </p> --J. A. Rhodes, <em>Choice</em></p> The book correctly elevates the visibility of think tanks in scholarly understandings of policy making and civil society. In its entirety, the book elaborates a valuable, sophisticated and complex framework for understanding how research and ideas are packaged and promoted to affect politics... </p> <i>--Canadian Journal of Political Science</i></p>

-Editors McGann (Foreign Policy Research Institute) and Weaver (Brookings) espouse the thesis that public policy research organizations (-think tanks-) are needed not only to provide governmental decisionmakers with reliable and understandable information but also to serve the larger civil society as -catalysts for ideas and action...- The editors hope to encourage the emergence of think tanks reflecting particular national environments rather than a universal template and to provide managers, governments, and donors with a clearer understanding of how think tanks and civil societies interact in times of rapid change. Though specialized, this work should be in all large public and university libraries.- --J. A. Rhodes, Choice -The book correctly elevates the visibility of think tanks in scholarly understandings of policy making and civil society. In its entirety, the book elaborates a valuable, sophisticated and complex framework for understanding how research and ideas are packaged and promoted to affect politics...- --Canadian Journal of Political Science

Editors McGann (Foreign Policy Research Institute) and Weaver (Brookings) espouse the thesis that public policy research organizations ( think tanks ) are needed not only to provide governmental decisionmakers with reliable and understandable information but also to serve the larger civil society as catalysts for ideas and action... The editors hope to encourage the emergence of think tanks reflecting particular national environments rather than a universal template and to provide managers, governments, and donors with a clearer understanding of how think tanks and civil societies interact in times of rapid change. Though specialized, this work should be in all large public and university libraries. --J. A. Rhodes, Choice The book correctly elevates the visibility of think tanks in scholarly understandings of policy making and civil society. In its entirety, the book elaborates a valuable, sophisticated and complex framework for understanding how research and ideas are packaged and promoted to affect politics... --Canadian Journal of Political Science

-Editors McGann (Foreign Policy Research Institute) and Weaver (Brookings) espouse the thesis that public policy research organizations (-think tanks-) are needed not only to provide governmental decisionmakers with reliable and understandable information but also to serve the larger civil society as -catalysts for ideas and action...- The editors hope to encourage the emergence of think tanks reflecting particular national environments rather than a universal template and to provide managers, governments, and donors with a clearer understanding of how think tanks and civil societies interact in times of rapid change. Though specialized, this work should be in all large public and university libraries.- --J. A. Rhodes, Choice -The book correctly elevates the visibility of think tanks in scholarly understandings of policy making and civil society. In its entirety, the book elaborates a valuable, sophisticated and complex framework for understanding how research and ideas are packaged and promoted to affect politics...- --Canadian Journal of Political Science Editors McGann (Foreign Policy Research Institute) and Weaver (Brookings) espouse the thesis that public policy research organizations ( think tanks ) are needed not only to provide governmental decisionmakers with reliable and understandable information but also to serve the larger civil society as catalysts for ideas and action... The editors hope to encourage the emergence of think tanks reflecting particular national environments rather than a universal template and to provide managers, governments, and donors with a clearer understanding of how think tanks and civil societies interact in times of rapid change. Though specialized, this work should be in all large public and university libraries. --J. A. Rhodes, Choice The book correctly elevates the visibility of think tanks in scholarly understandings of policy making and civil society. In its entirety, the book elaborates a valuable, sophisticated and complex framework for understanding how research and ideas are packaged and promoted to affect politics... --Canadian Journal of Political Science Editors McGann (Foreign Policy Research Institute) and Weaver (Brookings) espouse the thesis that public policy research organizations ( think tanks ) are needed not only to provide governmental decisionmakers with reliable and understandable information but also to serve the larger civil society as catalysts for ideas and action... The editors hope to encourage the emergence of think tanks reflecting particular national environments rather than a universal template and to provide managers, governments, and donors with a clearer understanding of how think tanks and civil societies interact in times of rapid change. Though specialized, this work should be in all large public and university libraries. --J. A. Rhodes, Choice The book correctly elevates the visibility of think tanks in scholarly understandings of policy making and civil society. In its entirety, the book elaborates a valuable, sophisticated and complex framework for understanding how research and ideas are packaged and promoted to affect politics... --Canadian Journal of Political Science

<p> Editors McGann (Foreign Policy Research Institute) and Weaver (Brookings) espouse the thesis that public policy research organizations ( think tanks ) are needed not only to provide governmental decisionmakers with reliable and understandable information but also to serve the larger civil society as catalysts for ideas and action... The editors hope to encourage the emergence of think tanks reflecting particular national environments rather than a universal template and to provide managers, governments, and donors with a clearer understanding of how think tanks and civil societies interact in times of rapid change. Though specialized, this work should be in all large public and university libraries. <p> --J. A. Rhodes, Choice <p> The book correctly elevates the visibility of think tanks in scholarly understandings of policy making and civil society. In its entirety, the book elaborates a valuable, sophisticated and complex framework for understanding how research and ideas are packaged and promoted to affect politics... <p> --Canadian Journal of Political Science

Author Information

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. R. Kent Weaver is a senior fellow in the Governmental Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of Ending Welfare As We Know It: Context and Choice in Policy Toward Low-Income Families, Automatic Government: The Politics of Indexation, and The Politics of Industrial Change.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available