Do Think Tanks Matter? Third Edition

Assessing the Impact of Public Policy Institutes

Donald E. Abelson

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780773553248
• eBook ISBN: 9780773553866
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

It is often assumed that think tanks carry enormous weight with lawmakers and other key stakeholders. In Do Think Tanks Matter? Donald Abelson argues that the question of how think tanks have evolved and under what conditions they can and do have an impact continues to be ignored. Think tank directors often credit their institutes with influencing major policy debates and government legislation, and many journalists and scholars believe the explosion of think tanks since the latter part of the twentieth century is indicative of their growing importance in the policy-making process. Abelson goes beyond assumptions, highlighting both the visibility and relevance of public policy institutes in what has become a contentious and polarized political arena in the United States, and in Canada, where, despite recent growth in numbers, they enjoy less prominence than their US counterparts. By focusing on how think tanks engage in issue articulation, policy formation, and implementation, Abelson argues that they have helped to shape the political dialogue and the policy preferences and choices of decision-makers, but in different ways and at different stages of the policy cycle. This expanded and revised third edition includes additional institutional profiles of key think tanks, an updated chapter on presidents and think tanks, a new chapter on the efforts of a group of public policy institutes to shape the discourse around the possible construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and dozens of new graphs and tables that track the public visibility and perceived policy relevance or impact of top-tier think tanks.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Tables and Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Acronyms
• Introduction
• 1 Surveying the Think Tank Landscape in the United States and Canada
• 2 Thinking about Think Tanks: A Conceptual Framework
• 3 In the Arena: Opportunities, Constraints, and Incentives for Think Tanks in the United States and Canada
• 4 Competing in the Marketplace of Ideas: The Strategies of Think Tanks
• 5 Public Visibility and Policy Relevance: Assessing the Influence of Think Tanks
• 6 On the Road to the White House: Presidential Candidates and the Think Tanks That Advised Them
• 7 Policy Experts or Policy Instruments? Think Tanks and the Debate over Constitutional Reform in Canada
• 8 In the Pipeline: Think Tanks and the Debate over Keystone XL
• 9 Conclusion: The More Things Change … Policy Influence, Policy Relevance, and the Future of Think Tanks in Canada, the United States, and Beyond
• Appendix One: A Profile of Selected American Think Tanks
• Appendix Two: A Profile of Selected Canadian Think Tanks
• Appendix Three: Media Citations for Selected American Think Tanks, 1998–2008; 2009–16
• Appendix Four: Media Citations for Selected Canadian Think Tanks, 2000–2008; 2009–16
• Appendix Five: References to Selected American Think Tanks in the US Congress, 1999–2008; 2009–16
• Appendix Six: References to Selected Think Tanks in Parliamentary Committees, 1999–2008; 2009–16
• Appendix Seven: Documents Related to Keystone XL Pipeline
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index