China Social Science Review

No.4, 2020

 

Evaluating Chinese Think Tank Evaluation: A Comparative Study Based on Five Evaluation Reports 

(Abstract)

 

Huang Qingzi and Ma Liang

 

Think tanks are an important part of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, and scientific and objective think tank evaluations play an important role in their healthy development. Drawing on the evaluation framework of third-party evaluation in public management studies, we conducted the evaluation of think tank evaluation across the five dimensions of independence, relevance, validity, reliability and functionality. Our comparison of five representative evaluation reports of Chinese think tanks found that the weak link in current think tank evaluation is reliability and independence, where the average level falls below the pass level. Out of the five reports, the Chinese Think Tanks Report has the best overall performance and has better reference value for comprehensive think tank evaluation. The Chinese Think Tank Index Report (CTTI) ranks second, with reference value for evaluation of think tanks in society, and the Chinese Think Tanks Influence Report and the China Think Tanks Comprehensive Evaluation AMI Research Report share third place. Although the Chinese University Think Tank Development Report comes in last, it has a high reference value for the evaluation of university think tanks. To improve think tank evaluation reports, we need to encourage the participation of multiple evaluation agencies and make the evaluation results public in order to form a benign competitive environment for think tank evaluation and help think tanks to position themselves more accurately. The validity, reliability and functionality of think tank evaluation are the key to further improvement.