Research On Governing Boards Of American Think Tanks And Their Relational Networks

Think tank governance problem can be divided into two levels:macro and micro.Macro governance for think tanks is including the evaluation of think tanks,think tank industry management and other aspects.Micro governance focuses on the survival and the development of single think tank.This study focuses on micro governance of think tanks.Micro governance played a decisive role in the development of one think tank.In a think tank,the governance board is the main actor of micro governance and the "brain" of this organization.Responsibilities of the governance board cover all important aspects about operating a think tank,including manager selection and incentive,research direction controlling,research results dissemination,organizational structure arrangement and work target establishment in daily operation of one think tank,external relations such as government,public etc.,and internal financial risk controlling,think tank management team and research team building,and so on.Based on analyzing the nature of Top55 U.S.think tanks,this study firstly discussed some theoretical problems about micro governance of American think tanks,which were registered as non-profit organization.First of all,property right of think tanks is composed by the right of ownership,income and control.Control is the main right of all three aspects.Secondly,the principal-agent relationships between donors and governance boards in think tanks are relatively vague and mainly based on similar values,including the accetptance of think tanks' masions.Principal-agent relationships in think tanks mainly exist between management and governance board.Thirdly,for a think tank the internal interest relations are relatively clear,in contrast,the external interest relations are relatively vague.Last but not least,think tanks can not survive and develop well without resources.Controlling resource dependency in a good situation is an important goal of think tank governance.Think tank micro governance can not be away from environmental factors.Based on the social environment of America,this study focus on the role of think tanks in policy process and current situation of elites in think tanks' governance board,then try to start discussion based on Bourdieu's social capital theory.America has the No.1 think tank industry all over the world.There are a large number of think tanks in different types in America.Summary of experience on American think tanks' micro governance,can provide a reference for developing governance theory on Chinese new think tanks.This study analyzed governance structures of top 55 think tanks in the United States,and different types of these think tank organizations and their different governance boards.For university affiliated think tanks,case study method is used in research and Kennedy School of Government has been taken as an example.According to this study,the establishment of think tanks in universities are mutually beneficial for both universities and think tanks.It provides a reference for Chinese think tanks that American university establish a virtuous ecosystem composed by the university and think tanks.In addition,for those think tanks with legal corperate status,the functions of various kinds of committees and directors' status in different positions are discriminated.Finally,the governance structures of American think tanks are separated into three models:matrix governance structure,star governance structure and cone governance structure,by using inductive method.Based on these theoretical analysis,combined with public information from websites of top 55 think tanks,this research analyzes the personnel replacement of governance boards in top 10 think tanks in the past year and lists a namelist of 1563 governance board members of 55 U.S.think tanks.Based on this namelist,according to data analysis,this study collects these persons' post information and more than 600 resumes.Research on these post information and resumes from the perspective of elite theory,it finds that these governance board members generally has one or more attributes:political elite,cultural elite and business elite,and points out that think tanks are institutional places for elite convergence in America.By using Muckety and They Rule as mainly tools,UCINET as a supplementary tool for analyzing,it finds that American think tanks and their board members are generally in double fields:the policy network and the interlock directorate network.This study analysis the motivation of governance board members in different attributes,based on Bourdieu capital theory,points out that it is absurd to discuss "Independence" away from the micro-governance of think tanks.In U.S.think tanks,different types of capital owned by governance board members are convertible and transferable.In the process of capital transformation and transfer,there is a possibility for board members to obtain a new identity.By comparing the network of think tanks in different governance structures,this study points out that the matrix governance structure is not conducive to a long-term development for think tanks.In addition,as a by-product of this research,in the process of sorting the identity information of these think tank governance board members,it finds that there are many political elites from other countries.By analyzing the role which these foreign former politicians may play,it points out that there will be an effective way to solve international disputes by using American think tanks rationally.It also suggests that it can eliminate the divergences between China and America by carrying out a benign intervention at the front part of U.S.policy formation process,by senting Chinese political elites to American think tanks.