In the past, it was called a door guest, strategist, counselor, staff officer, consultant and so on.
In modern times, think tanks began to develop. Although the history of the development of think tanks is not long, the growth rate is amazing.
Similarly, think tanks are also one of the institutions of knowledge production and application, which are similar to universities and research institutes. Of course, there are important differences.
Modern China suffered from aggression, the country was backward, and think tanks developed late and slowly.
After decades of theoretical research and practice, western countries have initially established a relatively complete system. So the following introduction refers to the situation in western countries.
There are two kinds of official think tanks in western countries: official and semi-official. It can also be called official and private.
Official think tanks are usually government organizations established according to law, and their leaders and members are appointed by the government. This kind of organization eats national food, belongs to the state and government departments, and its employees are all state officials.
For example, the National Security Council of the United States and the Scientific and Technological Research Advisory Committee of France.
Government-run think tanks play an important role in western politics. They are closely related to the government and influence the legislation and administration by providing decision-making suggestions to various departments.
Semi-official think tanks refer to policy research institutions that are independent of the government system, but closely contact and serve the government through various channels to obtain more intellectual support from western governments.
Generally speaking, think tanks have several functions:
In the face of new opportunities and challenges, no country can stick to the old ways.
When faced with problems, think tanks can provide new information, new ideas and new policy models.
Of course, this role has benefited from long-term academic accumulation and professional solutions to many problems, and has formed a mature theoretical framework.
Academic accumulation and professional solutions come from all kinds of talents.
Government-run think tanks in western countries usually recruit newly graduated doctors, former government officials and experts in various fields from famous universities to enrich their research teams. The job requirements of the recruitment position will be marked in great detail, and the research institutions will choose the most suitable talents accordingly.
Think tanks formulate relevant policies through investigation and demonstration, lobby the leadership with decision-making power, and let the leadership adopt the solutions provided by think tanks.
Former senior government officials often appear in the staffing of government-run think tanks in western countries.
These former senior officials are rich in contacts and resources, and the communication and dissemination of policies are faster. Many years of official experience have given them more abilities.
The implementation of the policy is inseparable from publicity. Whether every decision of the government is successful or not requires the help of policy research institutions, that is, think tanks, to carry out public opinion propaganda in order to gain public support and understanding.
On the other hand, think tanks will indirectly put the public's interest demands into the specific formulation of government decisions.
When the policy is implemented for a period of time, the think tank will inspect, analyze and evaluate the effect of the policy implementation.
Evaluate what?
(1) Whether the policy is implemented normally.
(2) Whether the results of implementation are consistent with the original intention of policy formulation.
(3) Whether there are conflicting emotions and thoughts in society.
Government-run think tanks find the fundamental crux from these problems, and at the same time put forward suggestions to solve the problems, prompting the government to revise and improve, thus indirectly affecting the policy process.
Since think tanks make decisions, there must be right and wrong, which is inevitable. Similarly, when some people use think tanks to make thoughtful decisions, it will inevitably have a bad influence on the country and society.