China Social Science Review

No.2, 2024

Policy Labs, Government Innovation and New Liberal Arts Construction

(Abstract)

Ma Liang

The construction of new liberal arts necessitates the support of new liberal arts laboratories, thus the creation of such labs has emerged as an issue meriting consideration. An increasing number of countries globally are setting up policy laboratories within government departments, utilizing scientific experimentation to drive governmental innovation, offering significant insights for the development of new liberal arts laboratories. While serving distinct purposes, new liberal arts laboratories and policy laboratories possess considerable potential for integrated development. New liberal arts laboratories, distinct in their positioning from traditional laboratories and university think tanks, can draw upon the experiences of policy laboratories to construct platforms for collaboration between government, industry, academia, and research. These efforts will also strengthen research in behavioral science, design science, and policy experimentation, and facilitate the translation and transformation of policy knowledge while expediting the replication and dissemination of policy experiments.