Think tanks and policy analysis in Korea

Abstract

Most major think tanks in Korea are government-funded research institutes. They play a dominant role in making and analysing government policies, compared to other types of think tanks. The Korean government established two research councils to support, foster, guide and systematically manage these research institutes and stipulated two comprehensive acts to regulate them efficiently. Policy analysis activities conducted by government-funded research institutes can be classified according to whether analysis and research are ex-ante or ex-post. It is necessary to place higher weights on ex-ante analysis. It is desirable to guarantee complete autonomy and financial independence of government-funded research institutes. Also, there is a need to reinforce the role of the research councils in promoting collaborative research projects across multiple government-funded research institutes.