ABSTRACT
This chapter elaborates on the distinctive features of the Continental and Anglo-American traditions, and why their respective emphasis on state and market dynamics is expected to be important for the development of think tanks in Europe. It presents the turn towards governance as a supplementary perspective to the institutional perspective on think tanks. Institutional analysis has been challenged by behavioural and agent-focused theories to develop more flexible conceptualisations of how institutions impact upon societies and constrain or enable change. The knowledge regime perspective relates to comparative discussions of the institutional competitiveness of different countries, but it has also been related to explaining the comparative variation in the development of think tanks. The US think tank scholars James McGann and Kent Weaver have been informed by the view that think tanks can function as catalysts for ideas and action in civil societies around the globe. US think tanks have become influential actors in the decision-making process with large teams and budgets.
