Functions and thematic priorities of CEE Think Tanks – excerpts from a survey

21/04/2010 — Goran Buldioski on Think Tanks

CEE Think Tanks – Functions and Thematic areas

In February, I criticized the Think Tank Rating of Pennsylvania University on this blog. My criticism is partly grounded in my conviction that ranking of think tanks do not tell us much about the work they do but rather the image and reputation they enjoy among the respondents of the survey.

Criticism without suggestion of an alternative is a futile and unproductive endeavor. Since I do not believe in ratings, I always tried to learn what think tanks really do in this region. That has brought me to explore their functions and the thematic foci.

Over the years consulting literature on think tanks in this region –regardless how scarce and unsystematic it was – I was surprised in the lack of quantitative studies at regional level. Motivated by this dearth, me and my colleague Natasha Yarotskaya carried out a modest attempt to map some 100 think tanks in the CEE (basically all countries expect Russia and Belarus) last year. The results are presented below. Please note three things:

- We focused on determining the functions and themes, not rankings

- I developed two systems: one on the functions (ranging from core TT functions to policy-research related functions to non TT related functions based on two axis) and other systematic organization of the themes (5 clusters with 15 different thematic areas)

- The results should be taken with a great dose of reserve (see more under Methodology section why)

But, the small study inspired me to do something bigger and more serious by the end of this year – a proper survey . Therefore, I would really appreciate your comments and suggestions (here on this blog or in an e-mail. If requested, I will provide the integral draft study over e-mail). Thanks in advance for your comments.

CLICK below for a QUICK LOOK in the excerpts from our results

A word of caution, almost all of the think tanks in the region are hybrid organizations, i.e in addition to the core ‘think tank and research functions’ carry out other types activities in order to sustain themselves. This was an important consideration in choosing and clustering the functions and themes.

Functions TTs survey

Themes TT study

Methodology TT survey1