ABSTRACT
Political scientists view think tanks as either part of the political elite or as one of many institutional interests competing for policymakers’ attention in a pluralist framework. Neither approach helps in determining what kind or level of influence think tanks have on policy. The policymaking process can be broken down into several stages: problem definition/problem perception, agenda-setting, policy selection and enactment, and implementation. Are external advisers influential at each stage or only at some stages of the process, and – more importantly, how do the products and the channels of advice change from one stage to next?
