How They (Could) Matter? Economic Policy Think Tanks in Germany and the United States and Their Strategies of Policy Advice

This paper approaches the question if and how think tanks still matter by looking at the contribution of American and German think tanks to strategic economic policy-advice in general and at their role in emphasizing advice relevant to the world of work and to a workforce/employee perspective in particular. The paper draws on the results of an original survey of more than one hundred economic think tanks and research organizations in the United States and Germany conducted by the authors. According to their self-image, the overwhelming majority of think tanks surveyed see themselves less as the mouthpiece of a specific societal interest or a clearly identifiable ideology, but rather as a consortium that participates in scholarly and academic discourses and translates the ideas developed there into politically relevant and politically useful concepts and proposals. However, despite the ‘scientific’ orientation of the vast majority of think tanks surveyed and their self-conception of working independently and impartially, the same respondents believe that too one-sidedly 'scientific/academic' oriented advice blocks public visibility and political influence, while a more clearly visible political and ideological stance increases the influence on the decision-making process of a society. Interestingly, this view applies to both German and American think tanks in our survey. With regard to the importance of the workforce/employee perspective in economic policy advice, our survey found that the consultancy potential of think tanks in this advisory field is still very large, when well over half of the institutes interviewed state that they have a strong or very strong interest in working on these issues. However, in order to realize their consulting potential for workforce/employee-related issues, these think tanks should accentuate and emphasize this focus of interest more clearly in their self-representations, in their declarations of self-image and in their research programs. Only then would actors representing the interests of employees be in a position to broaden the range of their advisory sources accordingly and to extend it to those think tanks which do not belong to the inner circle of trade union-related advice. This seems particularly urgent, because think tanks can only stay relevant if they address issues shaping the world of work in the future such as digitization, sharing economy/gig economy, basic income/minimum wage, international trade agreements, inequality or a post-growth society.