A Study On The "External-brain" Of American Domestic Policy Making

The history of the1960s has seen a remarkable boom of the think tanks, whichhas dramatically regained an emphasis on domestic affairs. Benefitted from thesupportive action of president Lyndon Johnson and his consultants, the urban institutewas established in1968, originally designed to inspect the results of the “GreatSociety” program. The urban institute acted as a centre for research of economic andsocial policies of the independents, its objective was to gather information, evaluateprograms and provide foreign technology assistance as well as U.S. social andeconomic solutions to facilitate and promote the healthy and effective development ofpublic policy and government administration.On analyzing the influence of the urban institute on American domestic politicsas a centrism think tank, this paper was divided into three parts with regards toexamine the significance of the urban institute from three perspectives: thebackground of its establishment, the historical development and the practicalconsequences. The first part introduced the founding of the urban institute,underlining the origins of its nature and objective by summarizing the social changesand the historical path of think tanks.The second part is the core of this paper, in this part the author tried to restore thetrack and the very achievement of the urban institute by reviewing its operation mode,research issues and models. It is a compounded organization of linear type, comprisedby the board, research center and publisher. The board is in charge of administrationand stays independent from other organizations. Being an nonprofit organization, thebalance of revenue and expenditure has always been a key feature of the urbaninstitute. The research issues of the urban institute covers health care, food charity,education, job training, income distribution, tax policy, state structure and thechanging of national policies. Its main task is to evaluate the political and socialsituation and verify the outcome of nonmilitary policy of the government. Also theurban institute has been famous for its objective analysis, first hand information andthe justice comments, which enables it to be a typical representative of centrism thinktanks in a complex circumstance surrounded by all sorts of think tanks adhered to theleft or the right.The third part is a comparison of the urban institute and other think tanks, throughwhich the significance of the urban institute is highlighted by a number of theoreticalapproaches.