ASIABU Teat Talk #4: China's Think Tanks between State and Society:
Political Brainpowers or Civil Society Organizations?
Xufeng Zhu
Abstract:
What are the reasons and the social consequences of the behavioural patterns of China’s think tanks? The speaker will present three independent sets of survey data to evaluate the unique role of China’s think tanks in contemporary China. China’s think tanks maintain ambivalent state- and society-oriented behavioral patterns, serving simultaneously as political brainpowers and civil society organizations. Administrative or personal connections with the state and regional knowledge capacity have formed two opposite forces that pull China’s think tanks to select either state- or society-oriented behavioral patterns. Moreover, different dominant behavioral patterns selected by think tanks in different regions have had significant impact on the social stratification order in China. Empirical data in this talk are from a nationwide survey conducted by the author in 2004 involving 301 of China's think tanks, the 2003 “China General Social Survey”, and the 1998 regional Integrated Knowledge Development Index in China.
