Climate change and environmental think tanks in Germany

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Abstract

Over the last decades governments and other political actors in liberal democracies could draw on expertise from an increasing variety and number of policy advice organisations. Besides governments’ traditional source of policy advice, the civil service, there is now a competitive and fragmented mixed economy of think-tanks, consultancies, research institutes and lobby firms. With regards to think tanks, Germany’s comparatively large and diverse think tank landscape is empirically quite well-researched. One gap, however, may exist with regards to the more recent developments of those German think tanks primarily dedicated to and climate change matters.
The paper will first present a mapping of the main players in the policy field to highlight how they interact with societal groups and interests, including other think tanks within Germany and outside Germany. It then discusses the conceptual models on the role of expert knowledge in policy-making – the technocratic model, the decisionist model, and the pragmatist model.
Although the three models differ, they share the assumption that policy and expert knowledge are confined to distinct spheres or ‘sub-systems’ that stand in a ‘relationship’ to each other. This idea of expert knowledge and policy existing in ‘two worlds’ is enduring, but possibly problematic. In particularly, it may downplay the complexity of the ‘knowledge-policy nexus’: the webs of institutions and actors that produce, contest, and consume expertise for public policy-making. Perhaps a new model, possibly around the notion of ‘intrication’ or ‘intricated webs of networks’, is better suited to capture complex realities. This new model could be more adapt at taking into account the entangled nature of the relationship between diverse policy actors and will highlight the complex webs of relationships, and the shifting identities of policy-makers, policy experts, journalists, transparency campaigners, lobbyists and other stakeholders in the policy process so that it goes beyond prevailing models’ assumptions of ‘different spheres’ or ‘different systems’ of knowledge-production and policy-making.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 25 Mar 2024
EventPolitical Studies Association UK Annual Conference 2024: After (Neo-) Liberalism: Towards an Alternative Paradigm? - University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Duration: 25 Mar 202427 Mar 2024
https://www.psa.ac.uk/events/psa24

Conference

ConferencePolitical Studies Association UK Annual Conference 2024
Abbreviated titlePSA24
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityGlasgow
Period25/03/2427/03/24
Internet address

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