ABSTRACT
This chapter provides inforamtion on think tanks that is independent of parties, labor unions or business associations. They may have support from these societal institutions, but they are legally independent and not dependent on them for financing. Think tanks have played a major role in the changes that have taken place in Latin America. The typology of think tanks being used in this book has four basic types: academic, contract research, advocacy, and party. Only two have played much of a role in Latin America and they subsume a real diversity of other types. Many academic think tanks in Latin America have evolved into hybrid institutions that do both discipline-based research along with applied research, contract research and, sometimes, pilot projects or technical assistance. In the 1960s, the social sciences burgeoned in Latin America, promoted by significant funding from abroad, particularly from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations and United States foreign assistance programs.
