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To understand the effects of war on the diplomatic practices of nonstate actors, this article focuses on the wartime diplomacy efforts of Ukrainian think tank experts in the aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Drawing on the concept of think tank diplomacy, the study specifically examines how Ukrainian think tankers adapted their diplomacy functions – negotiation, communication, information-gathering and promotion of friendly relations with other countries – under the conditions of the full-out war. The analysis combines insights from existing studies with the authors' participant observation and original reflexive expert interviews with Ukrainian think tankers. The article reveals how Ukrainian expert professionals, unified by the goal of generating and maintaining international support for their country, adapted their diplomatic practices for asserting greater control over their agendas, engaging in cross-border collaborations and broadening their outreach efforts. By shedding light on the work of Ukrainian think tank experts in times of war, this article showcases the agency of knowledge-producing nonstate actors in wartime diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature on policy advice and analytical communities in democratic settings, think tanks are often assumed to be carriers of new ideas that serve as an informed and independent voice in policy debates. However, how much intellectual independence do think tanks have in authoritarian environments? This article tackles this question in a case study of Russian think tanks' discursive responses to two protracted crises: the COVID‐19 pandemic and climate change. The study employs a combination of deductive and inductive techniques to identify the discursive strategies used by think tank experts in their publications covering the crises. The findings suggest that there are differences in how think tanks communicate crises, which can be attributed to their institutional structures and position vis‐à‐vis the state. In some cases, the think tanks resort to polarization and discreditation of Western governments' crisis response, while openly endorsing the Russian state. In other cases, they engage in rationalization and more neutral analyses of the pandemic and climate change. However, regardless of these differences, they rarely concentrate on domestic challenges. Instead, they geopoliticize the crises, overemphasizing problematic developments elsewhere in the world, thus shifting attention in the public discourse away from domestic emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how European think tanks with obstructive positions on climate policy use the social network X to advance their agendas. The aim is to understand their digital communication strategies, the issues they address, the use of hyperlinks, and the impact on interaction and online polarization. A mixed-methods analysis was conducted on tweets from twelve organizations known for opposing climate policies. Out of an initial 96,607 tweets, 803 relevant messages were selected to evaluate thematic content and interaction reach. The analysis identified five dominant thematic areas in the tweets: economic impacts of climate policy, ideological perspectives, questioning of official science, proposed technological solutions, and other messages. The higher levels of interaction were generated by messages with a political or ideological focus and those proposing technological solutions. In addition, most hyperlinks directed users to the think tanks' own websites rather than to external sources. European anti-climate change think tanks use social network X to promote their agendas through ideological and technical messages that generate high engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Think tanks linked to political parties, known as political party think tanks (PPTTs), exist in various EU member states and play particular roles in their respective political systems. This article provides the first comprehensive overview of these PPTTs, focusing on their party affiliation. Based on data collected from PPTT websites and exploratory contacts with PPTTs, we categorise the EU member states into two groups: those with PPTTs in sensu stricto, that is, where the PPTTs have recognised party affiliations, and those where the PPTTs have hidden party-political affiliations. Understanding PPTTs is essential for comprehending their roles at both the national and the EU level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aunque las universidades juegan un papel crucial en la esfera pública a través de la educación, su impacto en el tejido urbano y social de las comunidades que las acogen es menos claro. Este artículo examina el auge del término “eds and meds” en Estados Unidos, que posiciona a las instituciones educativas y médicas como actores clave en el entorno urbano, y explora los debates intelectuales y de política que ha suscitado. Analiza la transición conceptual y discursiva desde el involucramiento social académico hacia una renovación urbana impulsada por empresas privadas sin fines de lucro, cuestionando la visión a menudo acrítica de las universidades como agentes inherentemente positivos para la comunidad. Al revelar los persistentes desajustes entre las ambiciones institucionales y las necesidades comunitarias, este estudio ofrece un análisis crítico y oportuno sobre un discurso ostensiblemente preocupado por el rol de las universidades en la vida cívica.

Existing studies show that when Hollywood professionals develop and produce films and television series, they consult experts in social and political issues. These experts may be private individuals or representatives of various governmental, social movement, or research organisations. Drawing on ethnography and interviews, I focus on organisational experts and explore how they provide their expertise to Hollywood. I argue that these organisations form a peculiar social space surrounding Hollywood, which I refer to as 'the relational space of organisational expertise provision', which demonstrates some field effects like similar practices and habitus, but does not show overt competition. I argue that the provision of organisational expertise in Hollywood is undertaken by organisational boundary spanners who operate within this relational space through the enactment of expertise networks, the construction of connecting interfaces, and the trading of expertise as short-lived, or proxy, capital. These findings contribute to the Bourdieusian field analysis and sociology of expertise by elucidating how social spaces interact, how social agents gain power through the inter-field exchange of expertise, and what happens in the field of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are neoliberal thought leaders reacting to the rise of radical conservatism? Looking at Atlas, a worldwide network comprising approximately 500 free market think tanks and campaign groups, this study examines how its affiliates prioritize threats. This is accomplished through a qualitative analysis of a sample of documents that Atlas partners published on their websites from 2017 to 2022. The findings range from expected to puzzling. First, there is a reliable adherence to core neo-liberal ideas such as globalization and marketization. Second, explicit evidence of ideological tension is scarce, as only a few think tanks openly signal alignment with illiberal and authoritarian positions. However, as a whole, the network appears consistently—and wilfully—apathetic towards the radical right. This indifference contrasts with the vigour and regularity with which the network confronts left-of-center ideas, parties and governments. Delving into this contrast and its political implications, the study highlights the twin concepts of strategic and selective ignorance and considers their analytical potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the issue of continuity of the consensus on the US–Japan alliance in the post-Cold War era, by employing the concepts of a security policy community (SPC) that comprises both government office-holders and non-governmental actors focused on the foreign and security policy. The main argument is three-fold; firstly, one of the major forces behind the continuity and enhancement of the security consensus on the US–Japan alliance has been the formation of the transnational SPC that includes members from the US and Japan; secondly, since the end of the Cold War, the SPC has developed a dense network of members, institutions, and practices that supports the advocacy of alliance enhancement as well as community cohesion and nurturing of new members; and thirdly, the think tank- and university-based experts play an increasingly vital role in the formation and dissemination of the security consensus. The article suggests that such arrangements can have both positive and negative consequences and that a proper balance between openness and exclusiveness, expertise and novelty, and continuity and innovation is required in order to maintain a vibrant marketplace of ideas for security policy. The article also indicates that with the transformation of the Indo-Pacific security architecture from the hub and spoke to the networked system, SPC might serve as a model in other US alignments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stumbling start of the welfare state in the United States, along with the end of WWII, spawned the modern era of U.S. think tanks, but the onset of neoliberalism provided the fertilizer. This research examines the nature and growth of think tanks in the United States under neoliberalism. In order to counter the hegemonic grip of neoliberal ideology on our social, cultural, and political institutions we must examine the influence and invasion of these neoliberal institutions into civil society and day-to-day living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While think tanks are no longer solely a feature of Anglo-Saxon countries, they still appear less prevalent in consensus-oriented and neo-corporatist political regimes. To what extent do central characteristics of these countries shape the organizational characteristics and political activities of think tanks? We theoretically contribute to the existing literature on policy advice by drawing inspiration from niche theory, and empirically complement previous work by focusing on think tanks in Belgium, a country with a crowded and closed advisory landscape. Relying on a combination of data sources, our analysis highlights three central features of think tanks: (1) the long-term and anticipatory character of their policy advice, (2) the evidence-based nature of their policy work, and (3) their consensus-oriented mode of operating. The first two features echo what earlier studies in pluralist setting identified as key distinguishing characteristics. The third feature, their consensus-oriented mode of operating, represents a new element that turns out critical for understanding the niche of think tanks in Belgium. Its consensus-style tradition shows not only in how think tanks position themselves externally, but also in their internal organizational structure. Points for practitioners: - Think tanks have potential to be key providers of policy advice, also in relatively closed systems with neo-corporatist traits. - In such settings, think tanks especially benefit from a consensual mode of operating, both internally and externally. - The long-term orientation of think tanks can set them apart from other providers of policy advice, such as interest groups and political party think tanks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposals of think tanks nowadays carry weight in political actions worldwide. The communicative actions of these centers are crucial in the relationship with their diverse audiences for their initiatives to have a notable influence. Through a quantitative content analysis, the present study gathers communicative tools and measures the degree of interactivity promoted by these online research centers through their official websites, the medium that has the greatest impact on their visibility and influence. The research focuses on the 25 most influential think tanks in Central and South America, according to the 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index. The results show that the level of interactivity offered by the unidirectional tools of these think tanks is considerably high. However, in the case of bidirectional resources, which provide a greater opportunity for interaction and dialogue with the web user, greater use is made of those of an asymmetrical nature. The level of interactivity achieved is still insufficient, as not all the opportunities offered by the digital space are leveraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how European think tanks with obstructive positions on climate policy use the social network X to advance their agendas. The aim is to understand their digital communication strategies, the issues they address, the use of hyperlinks, and the impact on interaction and online polarization. A mixed-methods analysis was conducted on tweets from twelve organizations known for opposing climate policies. Out of an initial 96,607 tweets, 803 relevant messages were selected to evaluate thematic content and interaction reach. The analysis identified five dominant thematic areas in the tweets: economic impacts of climate policy, ideological perspectives, questioning of official science, proposed technological solutions, and other messages. The higher levels of interaction were generated by messages with a political or ideological focus and those proposing technological solutions. In addition, most hyperlinks directed users to the think tanks' own websites rather than to external sources. European anti-climate change think tanks use social network X to promote their agendas through ideological and technical messages that generate high engagement.

Sociological research on social movements and politics holds that advocacy organizations are typically trusted to be authentic agents of their constituents. At the same time, however, businesses and other outside interests often engage in covert “astroturfing” strategies in which they ventriloquize claims through apparently independent grassroots associations (but which are entirely funded and staffed to benefit the sponsor). These widespread and deceptive strategies may harm trust in advocacy groups overall, extending beyond those revealed to be involved, through a mechanism of categorical stigmatization. This study is the first to test how revealed covert patronage may “poison the well” for all advocacy groups, with implications for how social movements and other advocacy causes suffer harm from illegitimate political practices by other organizations. The authors carried out two survey-experiments in which a local advocacy organization was revealed to be operating, respectively, as a “front” for either a corporation or think tank; in each experiment, conditions varied depending upon whether the sponsor was presented as highly reputable, low reputation, or with no specified reputation. In both experiments, astroturfing led to significant declines in trust in advocacy groups overall. We highlight implications for theory and research on social movements, organizational theory, and political processes.

The role of policy advisory systems in the bureaucratic policy-making process has expanded greatly, yet little is known about officials' trust in the analyses they produce. This study investigates whether mid-career administrators in China place greater trust in policy analyses produced by governmental, quasi-governmental, or private think tanks, and the extent to which trust biases among administrators differ based on their age, gender, or the department they work in. We test for the predicted differences through a web-based randomized controlled experiment conducted with mid-career administrators selected for an executive MPA program (N = 405). The findings, derived from ordinal logistic and OLS regression analyses, reveal that bureaucratic officials have greater trust in reports produced by governmental think tanks. Women, older officials, and officials working in social service departments exhibit greater trust bias favoring government produced analyses. The discussion explores how close institutionalized linkages with the party-state align analyses conducted by governmental think tanks with agencies' strategic direction. In contrast, the dependency of quasi-governmental and private think tanks on external resources may undercut their credibility, leading their analyses to serve as a complement to, rather than substitute for that of governmental think tanks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Letras (Lima) is the property of Letras, Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas. Universidad Nacional Mayor De San Marcos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With geoeconomics becoming the dominant mode of global politics, the EU has responded by adopting a raft of new policy tools. As the EU's foreign and trade policies have long been premised on the hegemony of neoliberal globalization, new policies represent a significant paradigm shift and have received detailed scholarly attention. However, the question of how the 'rise of geoeconomics' has been changing the demands for, production, practices, and institutional organization of policy knowledge remains unaddressed. Analysing the EU knowledge regime -- a polity -- and its political economy-specific way of producing and consuming policy knowledge -- this article provides the first comprehensive examination of changes that have been engendered by (and justified with reference to) the perceived requirements of geoeconomic statecraft. Focusing on the blurring of borders between EU's foreign and security and trade policy, this article argues that we can identify important changes in the demand, supply and practices of policy knowledge production. Besides a relative de-silosization of knowledge and policymaking between traditionally separate foreign and trade policy areas, we have witnessed 'internal think tankization' with EU institutions strengthening in-house think tanks, investing more in foresight, and engaging proactively with think tanks. The latter themselves have reacted to geoeconomics by reorganizing internally and adapting to new cross-area audiences and stakeholders. Finally, the think tanks-facilitated practice of convening policymakers, experts and corporate representatives has gained importance. While the changes to the knowledge regime mapped here are ongoing and open-ended, they have important implications for understanding the EU's geoeconomic actorness, effectiveness, legitimacy and social purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper investigates the essential role of diplomatic think tanks in shaping Pakistan's foreign policy. Think tanks are non-profit and non-partisan research organizations that perform extensive research regarding issues such as social policy, political strategy, foreign affairs, economy, defense, technology and culture etc. The primary objective of this study is to assess the degree, scope and level of influence exerted by various diplomatic think tanks on the policy makers involved in formulating foreign policy of Pakistan. It examines in details the evolution of these entities, contextual factors influencing their effectiveness, and various strategies to enhance their impact. Over recent decades, Pakistani diplomatic think tanks have proliferated, offering timely analyses yet facing limitations in directly influencing policy outcomes. The study utilizes case studies of Pakistani diplomatic think tanks, comparative analysis with global counterparts, and secondary literature review, employing elitist, statist, pluralist, and institutional approaches. Diplomatic think tanks in Pakistan affect foreign policy-making by generating new ideas, providing expertise, facilitating debates, educating citizens, and contributing to conflict resolution. To bolster effectiveness, these think tanks should prioritize financial sustainability, forge partnerships, increase transparency, and engage a broader array of stakeholders in the policy process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive investigation into the primary causes of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The purpose of Russia designating its military operation as 'Operation Z' is also examined in this article. The paper provides a detailed illustration of the outcomes and repercussions of the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to unveil the nexus between the governments of the Baltic states and think tanks (TTs), which work on foreign and security policy. The article argues that the Baltic governments wish to use TTs as instruments of foreign policies, as they are highly interested in influencing well-known TTs abroad to further their national interests. The Baltic states undertake a good deal of effort to contribute to debates in the capitals of the powerful nations through the TT channel, hoping that some form of support can be gained for their positions in the international arena. Meanwhile, the governments expect domestic TTs to be visible internationally and influence policy debates by sending Baltic-favourable messages to foreign policy communities. On the other side of the nexus, TTs adapt to government expectations while also trying to maintain some level of independence. The process of using TTs as instruments to further the aims of governments is based mainly on the perceptions of government officials themselves, who are convinced that TTs should serve policy goals. Governments dominate the nexus because TTs depend on governmental support and/or wish to be helpful in furthering governmental goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty years of well-meaning efforts by environmental scientists, NGOs and foundations have failed to result in effective policy and nongovernmental action; we believe this is because the extent and nature of obstruction efforts are barely understood, and therefore not effectively countered. We built the Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) to address this damaging lack of understanding of climate obstruction. In the few years since our launch in September 2020, CSSN has grown rapidly to nearly 500 scholars in 35 countries, and shown that this research agenda is of wide interest and use for some of the world's most promising campaigns to address climate change. We wish CSSN to provide detailed, systematic and reliable information about the organizations obstructing climate action to civil society organizations, investigators, litigators, and policy-makers. However, we have learned that doing so only through scholarly outputs is not sufficient, and even with a focused effort on outreach and translation, that academic institutions are not by themselves adequate to match the complex organizational network assembled by conservative actors seeking to avoid regulation and roll back climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, U.S. government agencies have defined the Chinese presence in Latin America as a challenge, which has organized foreign policy towards the region. Departing from a neo-Gramscian approach, this paper investigates the bibliographical production of U.S. think tanks and seeks to understand the construction of consensus about the Chinese presence in Latin America. The methodology is based on content analysis and we identified two main narratives: in the first, the Chinese presence is presented as a threat to U.S. regional hegemony; in the second, the Chinese adaptation to liberal precepts is sought. There are therefore nuances in how the Chinese power is perceived, although the discourses remain restricted to the promotion of capitalism and neoliberalism under U.S. leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The King's Fund is a long-established health policy think tank involved in work on evidence-based policy in the United Kingdom. There have been few accounts of how think tanks operate. This essay seeks to partially fill that gap by reviewing the work of the Fund between 2010 and 2018, when the author was its chief executive. The essay outlines the history and status of the Fund, its funding and staffing, and the range of activities undertaken. Examples of policy areas in which the Fund was active and its impact on both policymakers in central government and leaders working in the National Health Service are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a countermovement in motion that has obstructed the adoption of climate policies all over the world. In Europe, although some organizations have been identified, we know little about their influence. This research aims to analyse the role of climate action contrarian think tanks in the policymaking of the European Parliament (EP). To this end, a two-fold methodology is employed. Firstly, a survey of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) was conducted in 2021, and this was followed by in-depth interviews with Accredited Parliamentary Assistants (APAs) related to climate issues. The results indicate almost no knowledge of these climate policy obstructionist think tanks among the surveyed MEPs and interviewed APAs. However, respondents believe that think tanks are generally used in policymaking. In fact, policymakers recognize the most prestigious European think tanks and often use them. Attributes such as visibility, good networking, quality content and transparency enable think tanks to have access to policymaking, although this would not seem to be the case for think tanks that oppose climate action in Europe. Results also describe policymakers' perceptions regarding the use of think tanks in general, which they see as useful tools in the elaboration of highly complex legislative dossiers in the EP. This article contributes to the line of research on the influence of interest groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politica y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Austral de Ciencias Sociales is the property of Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades, Intituto de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Austral de Chile and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

“Public diplomacy” in Taiwan is led by the Taiwan authorities and joined by multiple actors. Due to the Taiwan authorities’ limited international engagement, they seek assistance from think tanks in expanding “public diplomacy”, as a complement to their “diplomatic” efforts or as a substitute when their intervention is deemed inappropriate. In this case, think tanks assume an active “diplomatic role”. Their main functions are to provide policy advice and decision-making counsel to the Taiwan authorities; cooperate with the Taiwan authorities in “Track II diplomacy”; disseminate Taiwan’s values and build a network of cooperative relations. Their fundamental purpose is to enhance Taiwan’s international influence through exchanges and dialogues, to tilt the international public opinion towards Taiwan, and ultimately to build a network of “diplomatic” relations.

Today, Russia and China are each other’s most important partners in the international arena. The article discusses such an important area of their relations as interaction in the Arctic region and evolution of its development. In recent years, the role of analytic centers has grown, especially as the world faces complex global challenges such as climate change, economic inequality and political polarization. That is why the positions of the expert and analytical community of the Russian Federation and China on the issue of Russian-Chinese cooperation in the Arctic are of great interest in the article. In particular, the concept of “think tanks” is considered, the expert and analytical communities of Russia and China are studied, the developments of Russian and Chinese “think tanks” in such key areas as the development of natural resources of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and the transport infrastructure of the Russian Arctic, including the Northern Sea Route, scientific and technological cooperation. The article identifies similarities and differences in the views of Russian and Chinese scientists on these issues. The article considers the period from the beginning of Russian-Chinese co-operation in the Far North up to the present time, that is, approximately for the last 10 years.

This article examines the deployment of business power in Chile in a specific space such as the think tank Centro de Estudios Públicos (CEP). According to data from the year 2021, there are 79 companies, legal entities, and individuals that made an annual donation to the institution. This number of donors motivates the main objective of this article: to analyze the corporate power structure that is interlaced around this think tank and the companies that finance it. Regarding the methodology, social network analysis has been used to identify how corporate networks are organized when companies share directors and advisors (interlocking directorates). Respecting to the results, two fundamental questions are answered: 1) which are the central companies in the corporate network of the CEP's financiers? and 2) who are the closest and intermediate directors and advisors of this net of CEP funders? The leadership of economic groups like Angelini, Matte, and Luksic in the corporate network shows how these relations are intertwined. In addition, it exhibits how 40 directors of the CEP held positions in companies that provide economic stimulus to the think tank. Finally, it is concluded about the reticular structure of the power of productive elites in Chile and their consequences related to the resilience of neoliberalism in this country.

This article examines the role of European think tanks in public diplomacy efforts of the EU. It builds on Bourdieu’s field theory and concept of capital using data from EU official documents, website materials, and semi-structured interviews with representatives of think tanks from Brussels, France, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom, as well as their networks and the EU institutions. The article argues that EU institutions provide financial support for think tanks to obtain political capital in the form of internal and external legitimacy. The European Commission mobilises think tank academic capital by funding their educational activities, which helps to deal with the “democratic deficit” and plays the role of intellectual “soft power” by training current and future policymakers in Europe and beyond as potential allies in competition with other regions. Due to the particularity of the EU public sphere, characterised by the lack of outreach mass media, the European Commission tries to improve its capacity to shape public opinion at the European and global levels by using think tank publicity capital in its communication activities via new media platforms, distinguished by direct access to wider audiences. The European Commission benefits from think tank social capital, encouraging them to create transnational networks regarded as contributing to the promotion of integration within the EU, building relations with candidate countries, and strengthening its position in multilateral negotiations. Although the citizen’s dimension is not always at the core of practices of European think tanks, this article demonstrates their effectiveness as a channel of public diplomacy towards transnational publics.

Abstract In recent years, U.S. government agencies have defined the Chinese presence in Latin America as a challenge, which has organized foreign policy towards the region. Departing from a neo-Gramscian approach, this paper investigates the bibliographical production of U.S. think tanks and seeks to understand the construction of consensus about the Chinese presence in Latin America. The methodology is based on content analysis and we identified two main narratives: in the first, the Chinese presence is presented as a threat to U.S. regional hegemony; in the second, the Chinese adaptation to liberal precepts is sought. There are therefore nuances in how the Chinese power is perceived, although the discourses remain restricted to the promotion of capitalism and neoliberalism under U.S. leadership.

In this article, we study polarization within civil society. While earlier research on civil society has shown that civil society organizations can be divisive, research on polarization has only paid scant attention to the role of civil society. We bring these two aspects of the literature together to develop a framework for analyzing social capital in a polarized context. The framework helps identify practices that organizations may engage in when shaping social capital and working with others: facilitating the flow of information; providing credentials for actors; influencing agents; and reinforcing identity and recognition. Importantly, while originally developed for a fundamentally positive analysis of the mechanics of social capital, this framework includes inverted practices. In our analysis, we observe a bifurcation of actions depending on what role they play in the polarization dynamic – integrating relations within the poles or separating relations between the poles. In this sense, social capital contributes to intensified polarization. Empirically, the article is based on a dataset of 30 interviews with 24 policy-oriented civil society organizations (CSOs), here termed think tanks, in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite advising on thousands of important decisions, who serves on presidential transition teams in the United States is largely unknown. The secretive and transient nature of transition planning explains why this is the case, but also reinforces why it is important to have a better understanding of who a president‐elect might choose at this critical moment of the transfer of power. This article develops a theory of the transition team as well as a typology based on two factors: expertise and status. Original interviews with members of the 2020–2021 Biden–Harris transition team then demonstrate the utility of this typology for better understanding the transition period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has proposed that Jiangsu should 'explore the way for the development of the whole country'. Therefore, Jiangsu has naturally become a testing ground and demonstration site for accelerating the construction of an innovative country. This paper takes the construction of a decision-making advisory system in Jiangsu Province, China, as an example. By examining the current situation and problems of the construction of a decision-making advisory system for electricity and energy in Jiangsu Province, it examines the internal logic of optimising the management system and mechanism of decision-making institutions and the scientific and democratic decision-making of the government for the construction of an innovative country. This is of great theoretical and practical significance for understanding the development of decision-making advisory research in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Signos is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Jerash Journal for Research & Studies is the property of Jerash University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

U.S. foreign policy proposals are more likely to be enacted than other items before government and more likely to reflect the views of the affluent public than the middle class. We assess these patterns. Internationalist policies, such as foreign aid, international involvement, and trade agreements, draw support from think tanks and the affluent and are especially likely to pass. In line with populist critiques, Washington expands its international entanglements despite less support from the American middle class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media has become a core feature in policy development and enactment. This article extends current features of digital policy sociology to include the entanglement of education policy development processes with new media, paying particular attention to how two conservative think tanks in Australia have strategically used social media in their lobbying practices. By concentrating on policy publics, we show how The Centre for Independent Studies and the Institute of Public Affairs have used social media as a part of education politics. Using Luhmann's theory of moral communication as a framework, we work towards accounting for the contemporary hyperactivity of education policy and politics and speculate how these Australian case studies might inform the critical policy sociology of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares how the United States and Germany deregulated labor markets between the 1980s and 2010s in response to the rise of neoliberalism. Building on literature with a focus on ideas and national knowledge regimes, the authors argue that the trajectories of labor market deregulation across the two countries are explained by the distinct social organization of ideas. The latter refers to the actors and institutions involved in the production and dissemination of ideas (including think tanks and public research institutes), their access and ways of communicating to political elites and electorates, levels of shared academic standards across the political divide, and related degrees of competition or cooperation in the production of new knowledge and policy ideas. Moving beyond previous employment relations literature with a focus on institutions and power, the article breaks new theoretical ground by demonstrating how the social organization of ideas is a key intermediary in explaining employment relations change and continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: The paper examines the contribution of think tanks (TTs) to debating ideas and their relationship with the environment. Specifically, it analyzes the variations introduced by the electoral campaign in the political positions of TTs and the role of ideology and party affiliation as possible determinants. Methodology: The content of the web pages of ten TTs is monitored before and during the electoral campaign for the 2021 presidential elections in Chile, where numerous TTs have become protagonists. For each TT, attention to socio-political issues is analyzed, and the trend of their positions is recorded. Conclusions: The analysis shows that TTs adapt their communicative agenda to the electoral campaign and that their ideology is a principal variable in this strategy. Originality: Evidence is provided on the entry of TTs in electoral campaigns with differences between conservatives and progressives.