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Discusses the history and development of democracy and freedom in China from Mao Zedong to Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. During Mao's regime the Chinese people lacked every freedom from travel to the freedom of speech in their own homes, and as late as 1989 the Tiananmen Square protests were brutally ended by the regime. Since then China has freed its economy and by the early 21st century Chinese people enjoy the right to select their local leaders, to live in any community they like, and to communicate freely with each other. However the highest party officials are still above criticism and the media is censored. L. Pitkaniemi

The role of think tanks in American politics has been increasingly subjected to systematic analysis over the last 10-15 years. In this article I review some of this literature, focusing mainly on the questions of what think tanks are, why this phenomenon is so strongly associated with the US, & what influence think tanks have on US policy-making. Think tanks comprise a wide range of organizations, from pure research institutions to the ideologically-based "advocacy think tanks" characterized by their combination of a strong political agenda & aggressive marketing techniques. The American political system has several features that allow think tanks access to the decision-making process, such as a fragmented structure with a weak party system, a central role for the mass media, & an issue-dominated political agenda. There is no good measure of the general influence of think tanks in US politics, but case studies indicate that the central role of the ideologically-based advocacy think tanks may serve to undermine the role of experts in American politics in the long term. References. Adapted from the source document.