Wissenschaftliche Beratung der Wirtschaftspolitik - zur Rolle von Think Tanks in der US-amerikanischen Politikberatung

The institutional setting of advice giving institutions is very important in order to assure efficient policy advice, i.e. policy advice that, on the one hand, meets the demands of the citizens and, on the other hand, has good chances of being implemented through the political process. Therefore one should distinguish between institutions of policy advice that have the public as their primary addressees and institutions that give advice to politicians.In Germany the advice giving landscape is characterized by mostly public funded research institutes, doing in the first place contract work for different ministries. In contrast to this, the US setting is dominated by a whole array of private funded, independent research institutes, so called think tanks. They work in a very competitive environment as each of them needs to compete for funding and for public attention. Hence their public oriented strategy that includes not only advice giving to political leaders but also to opinion leaders and the public via the press and the media. Think tanks thereby provide ample input about possible economic policy options for public debate.In order to render economic policy advice in Germany more effective, the institutional structure should be modified in a way that helps to foster competition among the different institutes. To strengthen private funding of research institutes would be a first step in the right direction. The US think tank structure could serve as a role model for an institutionalization of economic policy advice geared towards the public.