The operational mechanism of the us think tank

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的assignment代写范文- The operational mechanism of the us think tank，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了美国思想库的运行机制。思想库是一个以公共政策的研究分析为己任、以影响公共政策决策和选择为目标的非官方性、公益性的公共研究组织。美国思想库的人员一般都不多。高级研究人员是思想库的主体，但为了保证研究工作的高效率，美国思想库非常重视研究人员与辅助人员的合理配置。美国思想库一般都承担人才培养、交流和储备三方面的功能，因而与政府机构和大学之间存在着通畅的人员交流渠道。

The think tank is neither a pure academic institution, nor an enterprise or a government institution. The think tank is neither self-appointed nor a social honor, but determined by its function and mechanism. Generally speaking, think tanks have the following characteristics.

In terms of organizational form, though think tanks are often named after "companies", "research institutes", "institutes", "centers", etc., established in the form of enterprises and managed according to modern enterprise management methods, think tanks generally do not set shares and shareholders, nor take profit as the goal.

From the perspective of social functions, the main function of the think tank is to use collective wisdom to study certain specific public policy issues by giving full play to organizational intelligence, and to provide decision-makers with optimal theoretical guidance, policy measures and solutions for decision makers to choose. What they produce is not material, but spiritual.

From the perspective of research objects, think tanks are different from general research institutions of humanities and social sciences. The study of humanities and social sciences is mainly engaged in the specialized study of purely academic nature, whose purpose is to explore the internal law of social development; The think tank is mainly engaged in applied comprehensive research, aiming to design corresponding policy solutions according to the law of social development.

From the perspective of value orientation, think tanks do not abide by the principle of ideological neutrality. Although it is independent in form, it has its own choice and proposition in political tendency and ideology, has a strong interest orientation or value orientation, and is inextricably linked with realistic politics and various forces.

From the perspective of social impact, think tanks do not have the same real power as government agencies, but they have a huge impact on the trend of social trends and government decisions. Whether policy makers consider or adopt the policy Suggestions of think tanks is the main criterion to judge the influence of think tanks.

There are a wide variety of think tanks in the United States. There are generally believed to be more than 1,600 think tanks, but about 300 of them are active and do exert influence on public decision-making. The unique operation mechanism of the American think tank is mainly reflected in the following four aspects:

The staff of the American think tank is usually not large. Generally speaking, senior researchers are the main body of think tanks, but in order to ensure the high efficiency of research work, American think tanks attach great importance to the reasonable allocation of researchers and auxiliary staff. In the rand experience, "two fellows are less efficient than one fellows and half a secretary." At brookings, the ratio of full-time researchers to support staff is one to two, and at hoover it is one to two and a half. The assets of the American think tank belong to the common ownership of the society. And any investor once contributed capital, he also lost the ownership of the assets out, also can not get benefits from asset management. At the time of its dissolution, the remaining assets are owned by the government that accepted the registration or transferred to other non-profit organizations with the consent of the government. Therefore, although the think tank prepares financial budget every year and publishes its income status, the basic purpose of its financial policy is to make ends meet, rather than seek to maintain a fat profit every year. In the management of project funds, most American think tanks put the salary of the project undertaker into the budget when applying for the project. Take the rand corporation. If a researcher's annual salary is $92,000, based on 230 working days per year, the average daily wage for a day of work is $400. The average daily wage for a collaborator is $300. If the winning project takes 200 working days to complete, the payroll costs $140,000. Together with other expenses, the total cost of the project is $200,000. Rand typically pays researchers more than a third more than a similarly qualified college professor.

There are four sources of funds for the think tank: the operating income from book publishing and academic conference; Contract income from government-commissioned research; Grants from foundations; Donations from businesses and individuals. Among them, the main source of income is from social donations or commissioned research projects, especially from foundations or other organizations and individuals. Not only can the think tank be exempt from income and property taxes, but private or corporate donations to nonprofit think tanks can be deducted from their taxable income. The more prestigious and influential the research institution, the better positioned it is to receive donations. The brookings institution, for example, gets 45 percent of its revenue from corporate and individual donations, 29 percent from foundations, 7 percent from publications and 4 percent from the government. At csis, corporate contributions account for approximately 35 percent of the total budget, foundation contributions for approximately 40 percent, and individual contributions for approximately 10 percent. At the heritage foundation, individual donations account for 52 percent, foundation donations 21 percent, corporate grants 7 percent, investment income 15 percent, and publications and other income 5 percent. It should be noted that although considerable funds are raised for think tanks in the United States, they generally do not allow donors to interfere with specific research activities of think tanks.

The outstanding feature of the American think tank is the strong results-selling mechanism. In the United States, many think tanks devote a considerable portion of their funding to advocacy and promotion of their policies, and only a portion to research. The us think tank promotes its research results mainly through the following channels.

Think tanks often select major and urgent policy issues, organize forces and specialized teams to study them, and then publish and disseminate the reports in order to exert influence on the government and its officials. It includes journals for publishing the latest research results of the think tank, working papers aimed at strengthening and expanding the influence of the think tank in the academic world, express papers aimed at expressing opinions on current important policy issues and guiding public opinion, summary and presentation of various aspects of the think tank and annual reports to the outside world. The heritage foundation is most active in this area. The committee has set up a special department in charge of relations with the congress. It maintains close contact with the members of congress and their working groups, and influences the decisions of the congress by assisting in the formulation of bills and other activities, so as to realize the conservative ideas. By doing so, the think tank can expand its social influence, strengthen its ties with the American business community, and obtain abundant funds from the business community. Corporate America also wants to use think tanks to reflect its needs and strengthen its ties with government agencies and the media. Since the late 1970s, in addition to promoting research results with the help of traditional printed materials, American think tanks have introduced their research results and policy propositions through modern electronic media. The elite of the think tank frequently appear in the mass media to arouse the public's attention to specific current political issues and guide the public opinion, so as to form the public opinion direction that is conducive to the decision makers to adopt their policy propositions, thus influencing the domestic and foreign policies of the United States. Think tanks can thus directly report their policy proposals to relevant government departments. This will not only make the topic selection and research orientation of the think tank more practical and easier to be understood and supported by decision-making departments, but also ensure the high quality of research results and make them more operable. The American think tank often holds a variety of seminars, symposiums, commemorative meetings, and appreciation dinners. The think tank can know the policy trend of the government in time, so that its research can be synchronized or even ahead of this trend, and its own policy ideas can be transmitted to the relevant decision-making personnel of the government. Government officials can also timely draw research results from the think tank, so as to inspire their own ideas and broaden their horizons. Issued a statement directly influencing government decisions. On the eighth day after Sept. 11, 2001, for example, the center for strategic and international studies in Washington, d.c., presented the bush administration with a seven-point recommendation for launching a campaign against terrorism, which the administration has since largely followed.

Generally, the think tank of the United States undertakes the functions of talent cultivation, reserve and exchange, so there is an unobstructed personnel exchange channel between the government agencies and universities. Think tanks often place their elites in government agencies, transforming researchers from policy analysts into policy makers. On the other hand, because American politics is a classic party system of patronage, a quadrennial presidential election involves the reshuffling of more than 3,000 officials, and the think tanks provide a place for those officials to bide their time and get back on their feet. Americans call this way of communicating between think tanks and government agencies a "revolving door" phenomenon. Through the role of "revolving door", the academic and political circles, ideas and power in the United States get very smooth communication, so as to effectively ensure that the think tank exerts influence on the foreign policy of the United States.

There are also close personnel exchanges between American think tanks and universities. Famous experts from think tanks are often invited to give lectures or give courses in universities, while professors often attend academic conferences or conduct joint research in think tanks. The intern system implemented by the think tank is actually an important way to strengthen the connection between the university and the think tank. In some cases, the think tank even established a fixed contact system with the university.

It can be seen from the above analysis that in order to become a think tank, not only the function of the think tank should be brought into play, but more importantly, the operation mechanism and management system of the think tank should be established. To put it simply, the think tank must establish sound fundraising mechanism, turn social influence into resource collection mechanism, and use the collected resources to conduct research and expand social influence. Establish a good interactive mechanism with the government. Although the think tank is independent in thought and research, it must establish a good mutual trust and interaction mechanism with the government, so as to keep the flow channel of policy information and thought smooth. We will establish a sound mechanism for the flow of people with the government, enterprises and universities. People working in different institutional environments also have different understandings and feelings towards the same thing. Therefore, the flow mechanism of personnel can not only bring a lot of ideological sparks to the think tank, but also further expand the social influence of the think tank in personnel exchanges. Establish a good results-selling mechanism. Think tanks can exert influence on public decision-making through a variety of channels, among which the most important way is to influence public opinion through the media, so as to guide the social ideological trend and exert influence on public decision-making. In this process, the media's publicity and amplification function is crucial.

It should be said that although there are some public policy research institutions in China that play the role of think tanks, they do not exist in a strict sense. An important reason for this is that the think tank is generated under a certain political system, and the size and space of its role are largely determined by its political and economic system. Therefore, without a certain degree of political democracy, the full development of the think tank is impossible. Although there is a good foundation for the development of think tanks in China, the traditional power structure and decision-making mechanism preclude the role of think tanks. During his visit to the Chinese academy of social sciences, comrade li changchun proposed that the Chinese academy of social sciences should be established as a think tank and think tank of the CPC central committee and the state council. This is mainly from the positioning and function of cass. To achieve this goal, we need not only a relatively loose political environment, but also a fundamental change in the management system and operation mechanism of cass. At present, the biggest problem of cass is the lack of a good interaction mechanism with government agencies, society, especially the media, the lack of personnel flow mechanism with government agencies and universities, there is basically no strong result promotion mechanism, there is basically no sound fundraising mechanism. This has largely limited its influence and sapped its vitality. In this regard, the experience of the us think tank is obviously worth our careful consideration and reference.

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