Research On The Development Of American University Think-tank

Think-tank was first generated in America during WWII and developed rapidly in Western Powers after WWII. Presently, with a consideration of countries all over the world, America has the largest number of think-tank, the highest level of consultation and research, and the biggest influence. Besides, American university think-tanks, which are affiliated to universities, have become the main trend of American think-tank construction owing to the advantages of comprehensive disciplines, abundant talents, etc. In 2010, Chinese “National Medium and Long-term Program for Educational Reform and Development(2010--2020)” has clearly stated: Chinese universities should “actively take part in decision-making and consultation, develop prospective and countermeasure researches, and give full play to the role of think-tank”. Thereafter, Chinese universities have carried out the construction of think-tank in succession. While the construction of Chinese think-tank has been hindered due to the inaccurate positioning, unreasonable team composition, unicity of funding sources,and the closed mechanism of cooperation and communication.Based on document analysis method, this paper has run through think-tank-related theory research, the forming and developing courses of American think-tanks, and the present situation of American think-tank. With case analyzing method, this paper introduced and analyzed the establishment, managing system, operation mechanism and characteristics of Hoover Research Institute of Stanford University. Concluded from the research results, the operation mechanism and characteristics of Hoover Research mainly include improving the efficiency of management, optimizing the allocation of resources; gathering elites and expanding decision-making channels with the use of revolving door mechanism; forming Matrix research team and promoting academic research level with the advantage of university research; building public media platform and reticular transmission structure, and expanding social influence. At last, using the comparative research method, this paper compared the construction of American university think-tank with that of Chinese university think-tank from the aspects of organizational structure, team structure, fund raising, achievement transformation, cooperation and communication, etc. Therefore, in the construction of Chinese university think-tank, we should build program teams, form a diverse research structure, gather outstanding research staff, and construct professional research team; innovate the mechanism of fund raising and management, broaden the source of research fund; establish a platform combining traditional media with new media, improve the efficiency of achievement transformation; construct revolving door mechanism, and fasten collaborative construction of university think-tank.