Traditionally, government bureaucracies have been the source of public policy initiatives and recommendations, but today the growing challenges to governance-more complex issues, the demands of civil society, and the changing nature of representative government, in particular-have made alternative or nongovernmental sources increasingly important if not essential. In this volume, experts from Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States offer a comparative assessment of the state of policy advice from such alternative sources as independent "scholarly" think tanks, interest and advocacy centers, party think tanks, blue ribbon commissions, and legislative support organizations. Authors survey the availability and adequacy of these alternative sources of advice and offer specific recommendations for how to improve the quality of the advice. Contributors include Kuldeep Mathur (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India), Mo Jongryn (Yonsei University, South Korea), Andrew Rich (Wake Forest University), Robert Sobiech, (Warsaw University, Poland), Amaury de Souza (Instituto de Estudos Economicos, Sociais e Politicos, Brazil), Diane Stone, Warwick University, United Kingdom), Martin Thunert (Hamburg University, Germany), and Tadashi Yamamoto (Japan Center for International Exchange). Read Less