An intriguing report published on June 3 evaluates the ways in which think tanks influence public policy in nascent democracies.
The report, titled Democracy Think Tanks in Action: Translating Research into Policy in Young and Emerging Democracies, takes a look at case studies in nine countries around the world in which democratization has made strong gains over the past two decades. The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) in Turkey and the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD) in Georgia are two of the nine think tanks examined.
The National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies is the publisher of the report, which draws on material supplied by members of the Network of Democracy Research Institutes.
“For the countries with more developed democratic systems, where the “rules of the game” are settled, democracy think tanks can play an important role in improving policies,” the report states. “In the weaker democratic settings, the challenge is steeper. Democracy think tanks in such countries can play a similarly important part in improving specific policies, but they have the additional challenge of helping enable more fundamental systemic reforms.”
Think tanks such as Tesev and CIPDD are good at coming up with ideas, but they still can use help in selling their policy prescriptions to incumbent authorities and/or the general public, the report suggests. “The accounts in this study demonstrate the value of independent think tanks that are able either to directly incorporate an advocacy component into their work, or otherwise partner with organizations that can help promote their analytical efforts.”
