On Formation of Policy Analysis and Legal Policy in Estonia
| Author | Peep Pruks |
| Pages | 3-10 |
Peep Pruks
On Formation of Policy Analysis and Legal Policy in Estonia
This article 1 is a policy analysis in the context of the transition societies of Western countries (USA) and, in particular, of East and Central European Countries, including Estonia. A review is provided of "think tanks" as an opportunity to shape an independent, analysis-based legal policy in Estonia.
The short-term strategic goal of Estonia is to ensure acceptance into the European Union. However, this should not prevent us from thoroughly considering what exact conditions to adopt in order to procure accession, and what should be left for future decision-making. The period of urgent decisions, including the structuring of the state mechanism, is coming to pass, which leaves us at the time to draft long-term activity plans. Strategic planning based on objective analysis, presentation of alternatives, and inclusion of the public greatly determines Estonia's development in the forthcoming decades. The policy planning culture in the general meaning has not reached a satisfactory level. Decisions are based on the "best understanding" of the decision-maker to a much greater extent than should be. Analysis has often been regarded as a time-consuming and unnecessary activity that more often impedes the process of decision-making rather than helping it.
On the other hand, the social status for analysts has been relatively low in Estonia. Analysts often lack access to high-level meetings and, hence, lack an overview of the actual situation. The results are lengthy analyses that do not indicate clear or feasible alternatives. Because of the lack of adequate analysis, politicians and officials often justify the ratification of one document by another document, or base their decision on "best intentions" lacking a meaningful argument. There is no serious experience in trusting the information necessary for analysis to nongovernmental institutions. Therefore, too many decisions that influence the future of Estonia are made without any prior policy analysis, i.e. without considering different options, and without assessing their possible social and economic impact. The weakness of the policy-making process has been outlined in the latest EU Progress Report regarding Estonia. 2
Although Estonia has several institutions that provide a certain level of policy knowledge, the main problems of the policy research in Estonia 3 are the following: - institutional identity of the research institutes is quite low because most of the researchers do not identify themselves with only one institution;
- there is no institutional guarantee: the quality depends rather on individual researchers;
- the research is often very narrow: the research is usually limited to the description of the problems and rarely includes policy alternatives and recommendations;
- most of the institutes operate on the basis of the short-term projects. That does not enable them to serve as independent critics and analysts of government policies;
- the efforts of the researchers are used in government expert committees on an individual basis and the results of the independent analyses are often ignored;
- there is almost no competition between the different experts and approaches used. It has been indicated that many topics are "monopolised" by certain experts and it is very difficult for newcomers to get in;
- there is the lack of expertise in many crucial and specific fields of public policy. 4
The challenge of public policy development in Estonia is two-fold: governmental and societal. 5
On the one hand, there is a need to enhance the capacity of official institutions ability to conceptualise and elaborate innovative policy initiatives. For instance, in recent years a number of government ministries and departments in Estonia have begun to establish limited policy planning staffs. At the same time, the majority of these groups suffer from two important shortcomings. Firstly, despite all of their good intentions many of them often remain preoccupied with day-to-day political battles instead of focusing attention toward long-term policy issues. As Estonia begins to face many of the strategic choices it must make during its accession to the European Union, government officials need a chance to develop a future perspective and elaborate those steps that will be necessary for successful accession. Secondly, existing policy planning staffs usually lack professional training in public policy development, relying instead on previous practical experience on the job. Thus, greater professional knowledge about policy-making must be indoctrinated into the system.
From the societal perspective, public policy development also requires a strong civil society to provide critical input and feedback all along the policy-making road. The ability of advocacy groups and interest sectors not only to participate in the process, but also to develop alternatives of their own, is essential for public policy to work in an open and cooperative context.
Public policy research organisations first appeared in the USA and Europe at the turn of this century when organisations such as the Brookings Institutions 7 , the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 8 , the Kiel Institute of World Economics 9 and the Royal Institute for International Affairs (1920) were established. The term "think tank" was introduced in the United States during World War II to characterise the secure environment in which military and civilian experts were situated so that they could develop invasion plans and other military strategies. After the war, the term was applied to contract researchers, such as the Rand Corporation 10 , that did a mixture of deep thinking and programme evaluation for the military. The use of the term was expanded in the 1960s to describe other groups of experts who formulated various policy recommendations, including some quasi-academic research institutes concerned with the study of international relations and strategic questions. By the 1970s, the term "think tank" was applied to institutions focusing not only on foreign policy and defence strategy, but also on current political, economic, and social issues. They include a wide range of privately organised groups of experts who perform research in a variety of disciplines and inform policy-makers, and the general public, of their research findings.
As organisations of civil society, think tanks play a number of critical roles, including: playing a mediating function between the government and the public; identifying, articulating, and evaluating current or emerging issues, problems, or proposals; transforming ideas and problems into policy issues; serving as an informed and independent voice in policy debates; and providing a constructive forum for the exchange of ideas and information between key stakeholders in the policy formulation process.
There has been a veritable explosion in recent years of think tanks since the 1970s, and there are thought to be more than 3,500 think tanks in the world today. 11 One of the possible classifications of think tanks is presented in the following.
The culture and structure of academic-diversified think tanks (Brookings Institutions) are similar to universities in every respect except that they do not have students - a fact which has led some to describe this brand of think tank as a "university without students." The primary difference between academic-diversified and academic-specialised think tanks (National Bureau of Economic Research) 12 is their degree of specialisation. Academic-diversified think tanks tend to conduct research and analysis on a whole range of policy issues such as economics, foreign policy, the environment, etc., while academic-specialised institutions focus on a single issue or discipline such as economics or welfare reform. Think tanks that perform the majority of their research and analysis for government agencies are often described as contract research organisations (RAND Corporation). Those that promote a point of view are described as advocacy think tanks (Institute for Policy Studies) because their analysis has a sharp partisan edge. In an effort to develop new and innovative ways to reach policy-makers, a host of policy enterprises have been established. These policy enterprises place a premium on packaging and marketing their ideas and stand in stark contrast to the academic-oriented think tanks that practice a more traditional approach to public policy research and analysis. 13 In the United States and other countries around the world, there are literally tens of thousands of university-based research centres (Asia Pacific Research Center) 14 that conduct research on a wide range of public policy issues. These institutions provide a critical link in the "intellectual food chain," which consists of all those institutions that are engaged in public policy research and analysis. There is an ecology that exists in the policy research community that makes these institutions dependent on one another for their effectiveness and survival.
In Asia, Europe, and Latin America quasi-independent think tanks outnumber independent ones for a variety of reasons, including the close relationships between business and government in these countries, as well as the support that these institutions receive from political parties. In Germany 15 , for example, political...
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