Introduction

Think tanks are a ‘growth industry’ in Germany, at least since the 1990s. Partly due to German unification, think tanks became more clearly visible in the public debate. In this respect, Germany followed an international trend (McGann, 2011, p 16), albeit with some delay – ‘(t)hink tanks have a “virus-like” quality’ (Stone, 2004, p 15) in Germany and the rest of the world. This chapter presents an overview of the development of German think tanks and analyses how they conduct policy analyses, how they try to influence the public debate and crucial decision-making and, finally, how successful they have been. A special analytical focus rests on the supposed dualism between academic policy analyses and policy analyses conducted by think tanks.

In recent times, in Germany, as in other parts of the world, the contours of think tanks have blurred. While early research stated that think tanks were ‘universities without students’ (Weaver, 1989, p 564), the increase in the number of advisory agencies has created difficulties in differentiating think tanks from other organisations providing policy analyses (or policy briefings), trying to influence policy-making or pushing forward specific policy interests in the process of democratic decision-making. Hence, think tank is a ‘slippery term’ (Stone, 2004, p 2). One prominent clarification notes that they are ‘privately or publicly financed, application-oriented research institutes, whose main function it is to provide scientifically founded, often inter-disciplinary analyses and comments on a broad field of relevant political issues and propositions’ (Thunert, 1999, p 10).

Such a definition implies that they provide independent scientific analyses for policy-makers, meaning that they independently mediate between the ‘ivory tower’ and the ‘real world of politics’ (the beltway), an assumption that must be questioned. Think tanks provide policy analyses to the public, but at the same time they have become more and more active entrepreneurs in policy communities. Furthermore, they act from self-interest in ‘empire-building’, in defending their influence in the policy community vis-à-vis competitors on the political market, and sometimes vis-à-vis the dynamics of the political debate in a broader sense. In this respect, policy analyses conducted by German ‘universities without students’ sometimes fulfil academic standards, but also serve as instruments to gain power and influence in the process of policy formulation and decision-making (cf Stone, 2007).