This important Handbook is a comprehensive guide to the role, function and perceived impact of policy research-oriented institutions in North America, Europe and beyond. Over two-dozen international scholars explore the diverse and eclectic world of think tanks to reveal their structure, governance and unique position in occupying a critical space on the public policy landscape. This Handbook serves as a reference point for understanding how think tanks shape public opinion and public policy, and how their directors help them navigate their way through an increasingly crowded marketplace of ideas. It also considers how these organizations enlist various actors (such as policy makers, the media, donors and industry leaders) to influence the discourse around key domestic and foreign policy issues. Handbook on Think Tanks in Public Policy is an invaluable resource for academics and students who wish to further their understanding of how to measure the impact and reach of think tanks. It will also be useful for policymakers and NGOs who are interested in the expertise think tanks can offer on policy-related issues and to donors, whose main goals and objectives may be advanced by these organisations.

It is often assumed that think tanks carry enormous weight with lawmakers and other key stakeholders. In Do Think Tanks Matter? Donald Abelson argues that the question of how think tanks have evolved and under what conditions they can and do have an impact continues to be ignored. Think tank directors often credit their institutes with influencing major policy debates and government legislation, and many journalists and scholars believe the explosion of think tanks since the latter part of the twentieth century is indicative of their growing importance in the policy-making process. Abelson goes beyond assumptions, highlighting both the visibility and relevance of public policy institutes in what has become a contentious and polarized political arena in the United States, and in Canada, where, despite recent growth in numbers, they enjoy less prominence than their US counterparts. By focusing on how think tanks engage in issue articulation, policy formation, and implementation, Abelson argues that they have helped to shape the political dialogue and the policy preferences and choices of decision-makers, but in different ways and at different stages of the policy cycle. This expanded and revised third edition includes additional institutional profiles of key think tanks, an updated chapter on presidents and think tanks, a new chapter on the efforts of a group of public policy institutes to shape the discourse around the possible construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and dozens of new graphs and tables that track the public visibility and perceived policy relevance or impact of top-tier think tanks.