Political parties and think tanks: policy analysis oriented toward office-seeking

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilo Argibay ◽  
Rafaël Cos ◽  
Anne-Cécile Douillet
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Marked Effect ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Party Membership ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Internal Production

This chapter examines the role played by political parties and think tanks in the development of policy analysis in France. It shows how party-based policy analysis is interwoven with inter and intra-party competition related to the objective of seeking office. Indeed, even though policy seeking activities do not look central in the functioning of French political parties, developments in party rationales, like those in the profile of governing parties’ elites, are favourable to intensifying interest in policy issues. Political parties’ professionalization nonetheless appears to have a marked effect on their internal production of public policy expertise: party membership is marginalised while the electoral issues and internal competition have a structuring impact. Lastly, analysis of public policy expertise production shows that it is mainly done in the vicinity of party organisations, due to the significant recourse to experts outside of parties and the role of think tanks.

Any better ideas? Think tanks and policy analysis in Canada

2018 ◽  
pp. 275-296
Author(s):  
Donald E. Abelson
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Appointed Officials

This chapter explores the role of think tanks in Canada, and their efforts to contribute to the formulation and implementation of public policy. As the Canadian think tank population continues to grow, more questions about how and under what conditions they are able to shape public opinion and the policy preferences and choices of elected and appointed officials are being asked. This chapter highlights the diverse and eclectic nature of Canadian think tanks, and the various ways they have been able to offer their insights and analysis of domestic and foreign policy issues. In doing so, consideration is given to the methodological hurdles scholars must overcome to evaluate more accurately the extent to which think tanks are able to influence both the content and outcome of major policy initiatives.

Policy analysis in political parties

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irma Mendez de Hoyos
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Party Manifestos

This chapter analyses the extent to which Mexican political parties have evolved and developed competence for policy analysis, offer policy options to party candidates during campaigns and carry out research on public policy to support the decision making process once in government. The main argument is that Mexican political parties are seldom accountable and transparent, and it is not clear which are the incentives to develop policy analysis and research capabilities to compete on the basis of policy choices, given the extended clientelistic network used to gain votes. The analysis is based on three basic sources of information: political parties’ official documents regarding their policy analysis centers (think tanks), party manifestos for the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections and some interviews.

Philosophical Impediments to Citizens’ Use of Science

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Baron
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Moral Rules

This chapter discusses three impediments to proper use of science in the creation of public policy. First, citizens and policymakers follow moral rules other than those that involve consequences, yet the main role of science in policy is to predict outcomes. Second, citizens believe that their proper role is to advance their self-interest or the interest of some narrow group, thus ignoring the relevance of science to policy issues that affect humanity now and in the future. Third, people fail to understand the nature of science as grounded in actively open-minded thinking, thus giving it an advantage over some alternative ways of forming beliefs.

Thinks tanks and their role in policy making in ireland

2021 ◽  
pp. 157-170
Author(s):  
Chris McInerney
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
International Experience ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Broad Variety

This chapter reviews the role of think tanks in policy making. Like most modern democracies, Ireland relies on a range of sources to influence the choices and designs of public policy. Apart from political and administrative influences, a broad variety of civil society, academic and private sector actors seek to access, influence, advise, inform and sometimes embarrass those in power. The chapter focuses on ‘think tanks’, defining them, reviewing international experience, examining different types and considering the complex issue of assessing think tank influence. It maps out Ireland’s limited think tank landscape and examines recent developments. Think tanks’ influence on Irish policymaking is assessed across a number of indicators.

Political parties and the policy process

2021 ◽  
pp. 187-202
Author(s):  
Maura Adshead ◽  
Diarmuid Scully
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
New Politics ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Clear Majority

This chapter examines the role of political parties in the policy process. The chapter employs a model of the policy process stages to examine how Irish political parties operate in each stage. This constitutes an exploration of the extent to which so-called ‘new politics’ might have impacted on recent political party roles and performance. However, ‘new politics’, governments without a clear majority seeking consensual support for their policies in the Dáil is nothing new, with no single party majority Government since 1977. Programmatic Government has been normalised and consensus-seeking has become the modus operandi for parties. What is new is that long established parties are now joined by an increasing number of smaller parties in the Dáil, raising the potential to shift the balance of power away from the larger parties, with consequences for the style of, and capacity for, policy analysis. However, the chapter shows that this tendency has been less marked than might have been expected.

The Role of Money in Politics

2020 ◽  
pp. 245-264
Author(s):  
Robert E. Mutch
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Government Regulation ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Party Members ◽  
To Come ◽  
Modern Sense ◽  
Money In Politics

Money in some form has always been needed to finance politics, even in the eighteenth century, before there were any political parties or election campaigns in the modern sense. The ways of raising and spending that money have changed many times since then, as have opinions about how it should be raised and spent. As long as that money was raised and spent inside the parties, and as long as it came from politicians themselves and from rank-and-file party members, regulation of campaign funds was minimal. That began to change toward the end of the nineteenth century, when political money began to come from rich donors outside the parties. Government regulation began when opinions about how campaign funds should be raised and spent became legitimate questions of public policy. This chapter reviews how campaign finance practices and the laws regulating them have changed over the course of American history.

Validating and Improving Voting Advice Applications: Estimating Party Positions Using Candidate Surveys

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Andreadis ◽  
Heiko Giebler
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Additional Source ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Voting Advice Applications

AbstractLocating political parties correctly regarding different policy issues is not just crucial for research on parties, party competition, and many similar fields but also for the electorate. For the latter, it has become more and more important as the relevance of voting advice applications (VAA) has increased and as their main usage is to compare citizens’ policy preferences to the offer of political parties. However, if party positions are not adequately assigned, citizens are provided with suboptimal information which decreases the citizens’ capacities to make rational electoral decision. VAA designers follow different approaches to determining party positions. In this paper, we look beyond most common sources like electoral manifestos and expert judgments by using surveys of electoral candidates to validate and improve VAAs. We argue that by using positions derived from candidate surveys we get the information by the source itself, but at the same time we overcome most of the disadvantages of the other methods. Using data for the 2014 European Parliament election both in Greece and Germany, we show that while positions taken from the VAAs and from the candidate surveys do match more often than not, we also find substantive differences and even opposing positions. Moreover, these occasional differences have already rather severe consequences looking at calculated overlaps between citizens and parties as well as representations of the political competition space and party system polarization. These differences seem to be more pronounced in Greece. We conclude that candidate surveys are indeed a valid additional source to validate and improve VAAs.

Emancipated party members

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Kristin Kölln ◽  
Jonathan Polk
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Party Membership ◽  
Party Loyalty ◽  
Party Members

Party members across European democracies exercise increasing influence on parties’ policy platforms or personnel choices. This article investigates ideological (in)congruence on the left–right spectrum between members and their parties by drawing on a party membership survey of more than 10,000 individuals across seven political parties in Sweden. The results show that around two-thirds of members are not perfectly congruent with their party. In a two-step analysis, the article argues that emancipated members, with higher political interest and with a more independent self-conception, are more comfortable being ideologically incongruent with their party. We also provide evidence that ideological incongruence matters for members’ exit, voice and loyalty behaviour. It is associated with a more negative evaluation of the party leader (voice) and with a higher probability to either vote for another party (loyalty) or even to leave the current one (exit). The findings indicate that ideological incongruence within parties is not a trivial matter, but is rather substantial in size with potentially important consequences for party competition.

Tied hands? Italian political parties and Europe

Modern Italy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolò Conti
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Disruptive Effect ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Italian political parties have been involved for almost three decades in a multi-level electoral game encompassing the election of national, supranational and local institutions. The content of the electoral competition has also changed to include not only nationwide, but also sub-national and supranational issues. This article analyses the interaction between Italian parties and the theme of European integration. The aim is to explore the role of contentious European Union matters in domestic electoral competition, specifically at the time of European elections. Such a role is important to understand to what extent the Italian parties politicise the EU issues during EP elections, and to determine the impact of such issues on the Italian party system and on its patterns of policy competition. In particular, the article will explore whether Europe as an issue has been internalised along the main patterns of party competition or has produced a disruptive effect and forms of realignment.

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