Think tank 2.0 for deliberative policy analysis

Deliberative policy analysis (DPA) is one of the significant developments in the trend of post-positivist policy analysis. However, the question of how to practice is a thorny issue hindering its development and dissemination. More particularly, the organizational aspect for the practice of DPA has never been well explored. Taking an organizational perspective, this article proposes a novel concept of “think tank 2.0” (TT2.0), which is designed to host deliberative analysts and to integrate the policy inquiry with public participation, deliberation, and dispute resolution. The article begins with a hypothetical example to showcase what DPA means and how it works. The following section presents a brief review of the principles of DPA, and a call for developing DPA institutes on account of the complexity of conducting deliberative analysis. Next, the article brings the conceptual framework of TT2.0 and its two models: an external model describing the relations among TT2.0 and other policy actors and an internal model structuring the roles within a TT2.0 and their division of labor. Finally, the article discusses some varieties of TT2.0 in operation and suggests several strategies for devising and operating TT2.0.