Deepen the understanding of the function of think tanks
In the past, people thought that the function of think tanks was only to provide decision-making services for the government. Wang Yuan, China Academy of Science and Technology Development Strategy, clearly pointed out that from the perspective of the whole social development history, a very important function of think tanks is to lead the mainstream and advanced ideas and spirit of the future development of society. The elaboration of the advanced nature and mainstream thoughts in the future, although diverse or contradictory, will always be the direction of progress. Think tank is a very important function to promote social progress and should be paid more attention to.
Cultivate the market of ideological products
Think tanks are talent pools that generate ideas and wisdom. There are many "libraries" now, but the quality of "wisdom" is not high, and there are not enough original products and ideas in the library. In this regard, Chen Wenling, chief economist of China Center for International Economic Exchanges, believes that some official and semi-official think tanks should be guided to be administratively transformed into third-party independent think tanks. Make it express independent opinions on the basis of in-depth research and continuous research, and gradually go to the market, and form an equal think tank competition mechanism in providing ideas for decision makers and market demanders. Whoever has an influential thought, whose views and constructive opinions or strategic design have made great contributions to national strategy, national decision-making, national policy and its society should stand out from the competition.
Zhang Xiaojing, Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that think tanks are think tanks. A good ideological market environment is the soil for the survival and development of think tanks and the cultivation of independent spirit. In this market of ideas, there should be a large number of diversified ideological products. In an open environment, everyone can express their opinions independently, thus concentrating a lot of ideological resources and stimulating the continuous production of ideological products.
Wang Yuanye pointed out that among many factors, the decision-making administrative mechanism has a more profound impact on think tanks. The decision-making administrative mechanism determines the scale, supply channels and market diversity of the ideological market. Without the demand of decision-making, it is impossible to create a diversified, large-scale and serious ideological market.
Innovative think tank transportation and management mechanism
A good operation and management mechanism of think tank is an important content of building a new type of think tank, which involves scientific research, personnel management and achievement release of think tank. In this regard, Chen Wenling advocates learning from the experience of think tank operation and management in developed countries, introducing their system design, digesting and absorbing innovation, and a department is responsible for designing and transforming it into policies suitable for China's national conditions. In the top-level design, think tanks should be given the opportunity to participate in decision-making. Only by understanding what the country needs can we provide think tank products that meet the needs. In addition, think tanks should establish a transformation mechanism to transform research results into decision-making reports, important papers and influential works, broaden the methods and paths of transformation, and serve decision-making more effectively.
Ge Yanfeng, Social Development Research Department of the State Council Development Research Center, also stressed that to promote the development of think tanks, it is necessary to establish a good incentive mechanism, including the level of treatment, development opportunities, equal and free research atmosphere and environment, research horizons, and channels for publishing results. Comprehensive use of various incentives to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of scientific researchers. Of course, it is also necessary to establish the necessary restraint mechanism to regulate behavior.
Attach importance to strategic research
In view of the research status of China think tanks, Liu Yanhua, Counselor's Office of the State Council, believes that many well-known think tanks abroad have invested a lot of money to study China's development strategy, such as China's energy development strategy, and have drawn many conclusions with policy guiding significance. On the other hand, China is rich in information and has a good accumulation of scientific research, but it pays more attention to research technology and less attention to strategic research. In fact, strategic mistakes are the biggest mistakes. We should establish a first-class think tank and provide sufficient funds for first-class scientists to create ideas, market them and turn them into policies.
Chen Wenling also pointed out that there are more than 2,000 think tanks in the United States, and the research power is very strong. These think tanks have studied some topics for many years, and have a very strong strategic reserve for some major issues, and even go deep into specific implementation links, negotiation priorities and so on. China think tanks are facing severe challenges in terms of competitiveness and strategic design capabilities. How to conduct in-depth research on major international strategic issues; How to break the division of departments and conduct cross-disciplinary comprehensive strategic research at the national level. This is a major issue that must be considered.
Emphasize the internal strength of think tanks.
Practicing internal strength is also an important content and inevitable requirement for building a new type of think tank. The internal strength of think tank includes the research ability of think tank personnel, the quality and variety of think tank products, the data and knowledge base supporting the production of think tank products and the construction of facilities. In this regard, Ge Yanfeng pointed out that the quality of the research results of some think tanks is not high at present, mainly because some of the results lack sufficient theoretical and practical basis, and the style of writing is the same, often focusing on too macro reform direction and principles, but not enough on specific program design, especially operational policy design. This is related to research habits and expressions, but to a greater extent, it shows that the overall research ability of think tanks, especially the overall research ability of operations, is insufficient. Therefore, we must strive to improve our research ability, strengthen the combination of theory and practice and domestic and foreign experience, highlight operational policy research, and strengthen comparative analysis and policy evaluation.
Zhao Zhiyun of China Institute of Science and Technology Information emphasized that China think tanks are facing many problems such as external environment, operation mechanism and management system. But more importantly, think tanks need to know who they provide products for, what products they should provide, whether the products they provide are needed by decision makers, and whether the quality is trustworthy. Zhao Zhiyun further pointed out that the products of think tanks are generally divided into three categories: the first category is reference research reports, the core of which is to sort out and summarize foreign experiences and practices and their enlightenment to China. The second category is analysis and research reports, which should first explain the truth clearly and then analyze the problems clearly. The third category is policy research reports. Policy-oriented research reports need to meet the specific needs of customers. First of all, we must understand the environment for policy formulation and adaptation; Secondly, it should be reasonable and legal, and meet the policy needs of decision makers within a reasonable and legal framework; Thirdly, it is feasible and operable to make clear the possible consequences of the policy. If the possibility analysis is not enough and the possible consequences of policy implementation are not grasped, it may lead to misleading and deviation.
Wang Yuan believes that China's official think tanks have undertaken many short-term policy research tasks, which has enabled China's think tanks to accumulate in the continuous evolution of policies, actual observation and grasp of problems. But the problem is that China's official think tank has not established a very sustained data base and corresponding research paradigm. Therefore, he stressed that China think tanks need to establish their own data and knowledge support foundation, and turn too much empirical research into more scientific and standardized research.