<\/a>Think tank characteristics<\/b><\/h1>\nThink tanks are prolific in the South Korean landscape. Many policy research organisations in Korea focus on economic development and security matters and most research is done in public think tanks. There is a strong emphasis on the knowledge-based economy and, according to one respondent, think tank research is generally considered high quality. However, it is also essential to note the intention of the government to obtain evidence to support public policy planning and back its reforms.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\nThere is a revolving-door culture, and senior-level ministry officials are often appointed to think tanks. As two examples, the current president of the Korea National Institute of Health (KNIH) used to be a government official in the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the former chair of the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHID) is the current Minister of Health and Welfare.<\/span><\/p>\nIn terms of themes, the global health agenda is not of high interest to Korean decision-makers, so actors such as GR Korea (consultants to the BMGF) are working to raise the importance of this agenda. While Korea is considered a high-income, advanced country it also faces challenges, particularly regional political and security issues related to its borders with North Korea. As a result, many think tanks provide policy recommendations in relation to these concerns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWith regards to funding sources, as many think tanks are registered as affiliates of government ministries (29.73%), respondents noted that \u201cthey follow the agenda and their budget is allocated under the ministry they are overseen by\u201d.\u00a0 The dominant business model is non-profit (54.05%) as illustrated in the following diagram.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Across all think tank business models, the national government accounts for 42% of all think tank funding in Korea, including budgetary allocations, commissioned research, convening events, etc. The following visual <\/span>illustrates the diversity of funding sources based on data from the Open Think Tank Directory.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Top take-aways: Most think tanks are government-affiliated or are under the influence of large corporations\/chaebols. Think tanks are prolific and influential in Korea and are a government go-to. However, they have been criticised for being too close to government and lacking independence.\u00a0 The private sector may have a more limited role due to political scandals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[1049,200,551,3290,216],"class_list":["post-2838037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-evidence-and-policy","tag-funding","tag-south-korea","tag-think-tank-landscape-2022","tag-think-tanks","article-types-research","people-alina-orrico","people-jessica-espey","people-julie-lafrance","people-shannon-sutton","series-think-tank-landscape-2022","theme-funding-and-support-think-tanks","theme-governance-and-management","theme-research","theme-understanding-think-tanks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2838037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2838037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2838037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2838037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2838037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}