Abstract
One of the most important goals for think tanks is to influence the public policy. Therefore, the way that think tanks influence the process of making public policies is worth thinking about. It is widely known that the United States has the largest number of and most influential think tanks in the world. Paying more attention to the front end, this paper chose to focus on the policy process perspective to analyze the think tank’s influence on the public policy by using the United States as an example. Referring to the “Multiple-Streams” theory, this paper built a mechanism framework from the perspectives of the problem stream, the policy stream and the political stream. Furthermore, this paper used the example of three typical types of think tanks from the United States to deeply analyze the location and the influential patterns of the think tanks. Which are the academic type, contract type and advocacy type. Think tanks have very important influence on the public agenda setting. In this process, think tanks are usually with the help of media and public opinions to influence the problem stream, with the help of their own research ability and reputation to influence the policy stream, and with the help of the core departments’ personal exchange to influence the political stream. Different types of think tanks focus on different aspects and make the process of formulating public policies in the United States more scientific and rational.
Highlights
Think tank is a place where ideas are produced and stored
According to the latest global think tank report compiled by a non-profit program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) [1], there were 7815 think tanks worldwide in year 2017, among which the United States led by 1,872
The influence pattern of think tanks on policy agenda setting can be realized through two channels, which are through the cooperation with the media to influence the public opinion direction, or through the interaction with the public to attract the media attention
Summary
One of the main goals of the think tank is to influence public policy directly or indirectly via a variety of channels and means in the short or long term. To address the issue of "the influence of think tanks on public policies", researchers can approach it from many perspectives. From the perspective of policy types, researchers can explore the influence of think tanks on politics, economy, society, science and technology, diplomacy and other types of policies respectively. From the perspective of policy process, researchers can analyze the impact of think tanks on the formulation, implementation, evaluation, supervision and termination of policy making process respectively [2]. From the perspective of policy term structure, researchers can observe the short, medium and long-term effects of think tanks on policy. The existing research on related subjects can be summarized in the above categories, and the research on the impact of American think tanks on public policies is the same
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