Think tanks

Think tanks are ‘non-governmental, not-for-profit research organisations with substantial organisational autonomy from government and from societal interests such as firms, interest groups, and political parties’ (Weaver & McGann 2000, 4). In many cases, they are charitable ‘third sector’ organisations and therefore, at least formally and legally, resemble the many NGOs that today constitute a good part of civil society across the world. Their product, namely expertise and knowledge in the form of usually easy-to-digest policy analysis and recommendations, is often aimed primarily at government but is also of use for civil society organisations in their advocacy and lobbying efforts. Also, think tanks can engage directly with civil society organisations and support their activities not only with ideas but also with tactical and strategic input. It seems that think tanks are not often conceptualised as civil society organisations or explicitly discussed as actors sitting between the spheres of civil society, state and economy.

This entry first defines what a think tank is and discusses what ‘types’ of think tank may exist. While doing so, it also introduces the reader briefly to the history of the think tank before a range of key issues is debated, using the rich and varied literature on think tanks generally and the scarce literature which considers think tanks explicitly as civil society organisations. The entry concludes by pointing out how both research on think tanks and research on civil society can benefit from a more serious engagement with the relationship between think tanks and civil society organisations.