Book: Think Tanks in CEE and the Quality of Their Policy Research By Goran Buldioski
“Being a think-tank organization itself, Studiorum is interested in enhancing and exchangeing the knowledge and practices as to setting up, managing and other aspects on think-tanks as organizational forms. As part of this efforts, Studiorum published the book “”Think Tanks in Central and Eastern Europe and the Quality of Their Policy Research”” by Goran Buldioski, a long term researcher and observer of think-tanks in the CEE region and in the world, and a director of the Think-tank Fund of the OSI. The book is available here for free download in Macedonian and English language.
Abstract:
The think tanks of Central and Eastern Europe have been often praised for their ability to influence governmental policies and less so to analyze various policy alternatives. The literature to date has looked in the impact of these organizations assuming that it is backed by a quality of research. This paper will show that the appreciation of quality standards for policy research and ability to communicate policy recommendations largely depends on the frameworks in which think tanks operate. Analyzing the work of six think tanks in four countries through the lenses of pluralist democracy, elite theory and knowledge regimes, this paper identifies the need for individual think tanks or their networks to develop a set of quality standards for the policy research and the dissemination of their research results and recommendations.