Center for Governance Research
| Abbreviation | CGR |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2009 |
| Type | non-profit NGO |
| Location |
|
Director | Hwang Yŏng-ok |
Budget | ₩4.794 billion ($214 million) |
Staff | 2,832 (excluding volunteers and interviewers) |
The Center for Governance Research (Menghean: 통치 연구 중심 / 統治硏究中心, Tongchi Yŏngu Jungsim), sometimes abbreviated CGR in Tyrannian-language sources, is a think tank and academic research institute in Menghe. It is headquartered in the capital city, Donggyŏng, but has regional branch offices spread across the country. It conducts research on a broad range of questions relating to domestic policy, including economics, education, taxation, and the effectiveness of the petition and litigation system.
The CGR is officially registered as an independent non-governmental organization, but it maintains close connections with the Menghean government, the Menghean Socialist Party, and the Ministry of Internal Security, including the shadowy Internal Intelligence Agency. It was established as an outbranch of Donggyŏng Central University, a state-owned university known for its reputation as a training center for Menghean government officials. Much of its research informs government decision-making, particularly on questions that relate to maintaining the stability of the MSP regime.
Background
The CGR was born out of the so-called "Dictator's Dilemma" which confronts all authoritarian regimes, including Menghe. In the absence of competitive elections and free news media, it is difficult for the government to assess its popularity or the popularity of its policies, making it difficult to choose policies that will keep it in power. Yet allowing too much open discussion could stimulate protest and resistance, especially if surveys find that the actual extent of regime support is low. Rising incomes in Menghe have led to rising expectations around government policy, increasing the pressure to overcome this problem.
Choe Sŭng-min and his advisors recognized this problem early on: agricultural decollectivization and the legalization of small private enterprises brought an enormous surge in support for the new government, but a shift toward totalitarian decision-making during the Disciplined Society Campaign resulted in less effective management and a string of unpopular policies, such as the suppression of tobacco and alcohol use. While it had relied on petitions and think tanks to guide policy during the 1990s, especially in the economic realm, it was in the mid-2000s that the Menghean Socialist Party decisively deepened its reliance on policy research.
Donggyŏng Central University soon emerged as a leader in this field, partly because of its physical and personal proximity to the central government. Leading faculty in the Political Science and Sociology departments had already published research on the effects of the expanded petition system, and they welcomed increases in funding to pursue policy issues more broadly. In 2006, the university established a dedicated Center for Governance Research under its own authority; this body was made independent in 2009, with a new headquarters building and an even more generous grant to support its expanded operations.
Role
The Center for Governance Research combines the functions of a think tank, a polling organization, and a funding source for social science research. It is particularly active in the fields of political science, political psychology, economics, sociology, and jurisprudence. For more specialized topics relating to the natural sciences, such as public health, technological development, and environmental protection, it delegates work to other specialist institutes but may coordinate on questions of implementation.
In general, research and advisory work within the CGR focuses on practical issues relating to specific domestic governance questions, such as how to make local bureaucratic agencies more responsive and effient or which out of several tax increase schemes would be the least unpopular. It then passes its findings on to government and Party agencies, allowing them to apply these lessons as they see fit. In this respect, it is similar in function to the NSCC, except that its non-binding policy proposals are collected by academic experts rather than delegates representing various social classes.
Some of these findings are published in quarterly journals and stand-alone policy briefs, which are available to academic researchers and the general public, though sometimes with a subscription fee. The Center also hosts regular conferences and presentations around the country, inviting scholars from nearby universities and observers from the general public. Sensitive findings, however - such as those relating to opposition movements, policing tactics, or the extent of corruption - are passed directly to the relevant government agencies along secure back channels, sometimes without the knowledge of employees outside the assigned research team. This filter strategy has the added effect of skewing widely publicized research in favor of innocuous or optimistic material, while suppressing information which uncovers sensitive problems or casts the state in a negative light. There is particularly widespread speculation that the Center for Governance Research has conducted work on the effectiveness of psychological torture methods for the IIA and the Menghean Army.
A dominant theme in the CGR's research has been how to make the government more responsive to popular opinion on minor issues while maintaining full state authority over issues of core political interest. Input from the Center's researchers played an instrumental role in the expansion of the public petitioning system, the opening of local government web portals, and the "legal awareness improvement campaign," all of which play a careful balancing act between soliciting public criticism and keeping it under control within the system.
Funding
Most funding for the Center for Governance Research comes in the form of annual grants from the National Institute for Scientific Research, an agency of the central government. While it is common for the NISR to fund independent academic organizations in the social sciences and natural sciences, the reliance of the CGR on NISR cash flows has been compared to a moneylaundering operation designed to disguise its status as an appendage of the government. NISR-CGR funding flows are generous, stable, and tied to Party initiatives, increasing any time the national leadership announces a new policy initiative.
The CGR also regularly receives funding from individual government agencies, usually in return for research assessing a policy question of interest to the agency involved. On occasion, it has accepted commissions from non-government organizations or university-affiliated scholars, but its main clients are organs of the government or the ruling party.
Organization and membership
Apart from its upper management echelons and logistical organs, which have steadily expanded to keep pace with the Center's resources and scope, the CGR's research wing is divided into the following departments:
- The Department for Economic Policy, which focuses on issues relating to economic reform, firm structure, and employment, as well as classical economics more broadly;
- The Department for Administration Research, which focuses on ways to streamline the bureaucracy and better manage the promotion of officials;
- The Department for Public Opinion Polling, which manages a range of nationwide surveys tracking public opinion on a variety of issues and carries out new research as needed;
- The Department for Behavioral Research, which focuses on psychology, sociology, and political behavior, particularly in relation to regime support; and
- The Department for Stability Maintenance, which focuses on policing, interrogation, counter-terrorism, and surveillance.
Personnel at the Center for Governance Research consist of a combination of full-time research fellows, and affiliated professors at Menghean universities. Many of the latter conduct their work from the university campus, but attend conferences hosted by the CGR to present their findings and accept commissions for policy research.
In addition to administrative and service staff, it also employs a vast network of some 20,000 trained interviewers. These employees can be called upon to administer surveys and conduct in-depth interviews with randomly selected citizens, either across the country or within a specific area of interest. Though the early "data-gathering staff" were criticized internally for their poor training and lack of adequate control measures, including outright fabrication of survey results, in the wake of major retraining and restructuring they are today recognized as some of the most professional academic interviewers in the country, and numerous independent scholars have sought contracts with the CGR to have their staff carry out a pre-prepared survey.
Publications
Regular publications produced by the Center for Governance Research include the following academic journals:
- Menghean Journal of Policing Methods (annual)
- Review of Economic Reform and Development (quarterly)
- Journal of Administration and Public Management (monthly)
- State Journal of Behavioral Research (quarterly)
The CGR also produces stand-alone in-depth policy documents focusing intensively on a given issue, usually written collaboratively by a wider team on a commission from a government institution. All documents in the series are available on the Center's official website, though they are blocked by a paywall for non-registered visitors.
In 2014, the Center for Governance Research opened its own subsidiary publishing company, Donggyŏng Governance Press. This company prints academic books on topics relevant to the CGR's research agenda, including works by non-members which were submitted and passed a peer review process. Donggyŏng Governance Press also conducts authorized Menghean language reprints of social science books written in other countries.
International outreach
Comparative research
In order to gain added leverage on its domestic work, the Center for Governance Research finances research on governance structures in other countries, hoping to find lessons which can be applied at home. Much of this research abroad takes place in authoritarian countries, including Sieuxerr, the Federation of Socialist Republics and Innominada, until the latter expelled CGR-affiliated researchers in 2011. In recent years, it has also expanded its research on developed democracies such as Dayashina and Tol Galen, in order to search for ways to expand the welfare system and streamline the service-oriented bureaucracy.
Academic connections
The CGR has also sought to bolster its research by drawing on wider expertise about authoritarian politics. It has reached out to a number of foreign universities' political science departments to invite guest speakers, sponsor collaborative projects, fund studies on Menghe, and even recruit research fellows, especially by targeting ethnic Meng working abroad. While initially it met with some success, increased awareness of the CGR's role in regime stability has led increasing numbers of scholars in democratic countries to avoid collaborative work.
Even in the absence of direct contact, however, CGR members closely follow the development of scholarly literature about the sources of Menghean regime stability, regarding it as a potentially more honest check on their Center's own findings. This, too, has raised debate over whether foreign researchers studying Menghean politics are inadvertently supporting the regime as their findings are applied to policy against their will.
Advisory work
In addition to informing decision-making in Menghe itself, the CGR has in recent years devoted increasing effort to advisory work in other developing countries. These include a number of Menghe's allies, such as Dzhungestan, Polvokia, Qusayn, and Ummayah. Not by coincidence, many of these countries have authoritarian or illiberal governments, and the CGR has drawn flak for attempting to export the "Menghean model" abroad.
For their part, CGR publicity officials have defended their move as an effort to improve the quality of governance in low-income areas where state capacity is constrained. Much of their research relates to democratically laudable goals, such as fighting corruption, improving accountability, and targeting public services more effectively. CGR supporters contrast their approach favorably with that of other development NGOs, which they accuse of bypassing official state channels in order to deliver goods and services directly, addressing needs in the short run but intensifying long-run problems with poor state capacity, low institutional trust, and dependence on foreign aid.