THINK TANKS IN ALBANIA: A CASE OF A FLAWED POWER-KNOWLEDGE NEXUS

Abstract

Think tanks are widely considered to be an important part of political life in mature democracies (McGann, 2019) . The aim of the article is to present a preliminary characterisation of the institutional landscape of think tanks in Albania, based on the results of a qualitative and quantitative study conducted at the turn of 2017 . The paper starts with presenting the specific features of the Albanian think tank sector and then proceeds to identify two major, yet interlinked, challenges facing Albanian think tanks, namely: (i) the lack of any internal political and institutional market for their research products, which is evidenced by their negligible impact on the policymaking process; (ii) the dependence on financing from external donors, which seriously constricts the autonomy of Albanian think tanks in defining their research agenda . The authors propose that this analysis of Albanian think tanks will aid in understanding how the Albanian political system functions as a whole . 144 Renata Włoch, Nevila Xhindi