第五种权力——美国思想库的成长、功能及运作机制

Think Tank, emerged in early 20th century, has become the fifth power on a par with legislation, administration, jurisdiction and media in the United States. Its function can be reflected in the following four aspects: producing policy thoughts; providing policy proposals; reserving and providing talents for the government; and educating public servants as well as the public. It operates mainly through releasing publications, holding conferences, spreading ideas through the media, doing concrete work like formulating bills, giving testimony, expressing opinions and etc. for Congressmen and Congress committees. US Think Tanks have the greatest impact and are the most among Western countries. This mainly because that the Congress and the authority make domestic and foreign policies separately and they both need to rely on the “exterior brains” who could provide special information. But the party organizations in the US are loose and have no policy research sectors. Besides, the open political system provides a wide space for Think Tanks to launch activities. In the past two to three decades, the development of the US Think Tanks presented four tendencies: 1) The number of public policy research organizations increased sharply; 2) The competition among Think Tanks tended to converge on Washington D.C.; 3) Specialized Think Tanks emerged rapidly; 4) Think Tanks with ideology and political inclination were on the rise.