Do Think Tanks Matter?: Assessing the Impact of Public Policy Institutes, Second Edition - Hardcover
It is often assumed that think tanks carry enormous weight with lawmakers. In Do Think Tanks Matter? Donald Abelson argues that the basic question of how think tanks have evolved and under what conditions they can and do have an effect is consistently 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 in the latter part of the twentieth century indicates their growing importance in the policy-making process. Abelson goes beyond assumptions, identifying the influence and relevance of public policy institutes in today's political arena in the United States, where they've become an integral feature of the political landscape, and in Canada, where, despite recent growth in numbers, they enjoy less prominence than their US counterparts. By focusing on the policy cycle, issue articulation, policy formation, and implementation, Abelson argues that individual think tanks have sometimes played an important role in shaping the political dialogue and the policy preferences and choices of decision-makers but often in different ways and at different stages of the policy cycle. This revised and updated edition of the book includes up-to-date data (2000-08) on the growing visibility and policy relevance of think tanks in Canada and the United States.
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About the Author:
Donald E. Abelson, professor and chair, Department of Political Science, and director, Centre for American Studies, The University of Western Ontario, is the author of A Capitol Idea: Think Tanks and U.S. Foreign Policy.
Review:
"An important contribution to a body of literature that is increasingly recognised in the social sciences as an undeveloped field and worthy of more extensive investigation. Abelson's comparative insights will have wider significance in drawing attention to how think tanks find different points of access within the policy cycles. He provides extensive coverage of the issues, concerns, and debates confronted by think tank directors, their funders, and their users, and provides the most up-to-date account of the literature." Diane Stone, Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick----"Well-written and lucid ... this is a seminal contribution to the field. Abelson has a sophisticated and up-to-date understanding of the literature and the phenomena that he studies." Evert Lindquist, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria
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- PublisherMcGill-Queen's University Press
- Publication date2009
- ISBN 10 0773536078
- ISBN 13 9780773536074
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number2
- Number of pages360
- Rating
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