| One of the important issues that modern public policy needs to face is how to make national policies accurately recognized and effectively accepted by society.When the governments` policy beliefs or policy values changed,the level of cognition and cognitive structure of the public need to be improved simultaneously.However,this ideal state actually is difficult to achieve in the policy process.There is always a dilemma between the new policy arrangement and the full cognition and understanding of policy,that the "gap" that is difficult to bridge between the old and new policies,and the cognitive “fracture” which the transition between old and new policies brings.Then,how to make national policies identified by the society and form policy consensus? In this regard,rational institutionalism argues that the basis for the existence and establishment of institutions is that institutional benefits are higher than institutional costs.Politics-related researchers agree that once national policies are identified and formed by society in the basic process of designing,basic values,and governance performance of the country,as well as the basic processes of equal voting,open discussion,and negotiated participation,there will be policy identification and policy consensus.This paper attempts to respond and answer the question by introducing the concept of policy narrative,that is,the state breaks through cognitive differences and forms a consensus through policy narrative.The so-called policy narrative is a series of stories or elaboration behaviors that are related to the policy-related subjects in order to ensure and maintain the smooth implementation of policies in a environment full of complexity and uncertainty.National policy narratives are specific narrative forms that contain state intentions in which the state defines policy issues,proposes policy options,and conveys meaning and value in the process by selecting and organizing specific policy content.National policy narratives can play a role in bridging the “crack” and “discomfort” brought about by the process of policy change,resolving policy cognition differences and promoting policy consensus.In general,policy narrative consists of elements such as a setting/context,a plot,an actor,a moral,and a causal mechanism,in which the story actor and policy moral are necessary.Policy narrative has many special characteristics,including intentional,contextuality,concealed,historical inheritance,ideographic relativity.Actually,policy narratives come in many forms and will involve the whole process of policy through multiple aspects.The forms of policy narratives include policy construction,social media propaganda,policy argumentation,policy implementation,and leading policy evaluation.National policy narratives have multiple functions in modern,which can help to construct collective memory,boost social mobilization,unite policy identification,and enhance government legitimacy.In the process of policy change,policy narrative is actually a process that points to the policy consensus,that is,through the way of storytelling,it can promote the consensus on the policy beliefs within the maximum range of society.Different from the traditional research on the path of policy consensus,the policy narrative promotes the consensus of action consensus,rule consensus and value consensus through shaping the consensus of fact cognition,policy procedure,value meaning and policy diffusion.The policy narrative process under the policy consensus includes: the policy narrative subject builds alliances based on the core beliefs and declares the discourse outside,the policy narrative alliance constructs the narrative system around the core issues of the policy and conducts narrative competition among them,and the mainstream policy narrative wins and promots policy consensus.As far as policy changes are concerned,through the study of changes in policy narratives,we are able to better grasp the basic connotation features of policy changes,such as the values advocated by policies and policy beliefs changes,which can also help us take a broader perspective to observe the external manifestations of policy changes,especially those tactics used by the policy-related subjects in policy adjustments.The policy narrative structure in policy change includes the choice of discourse objects,the construction of policy issues,the production of policy beliefs and the application of narrative strategies.The policy narrative system will also promote policy development based on social consensus.This policy narrative structure framework also applies to the analysis of national policy narratives.This paper sorts out the historical research literature and important party and government periodicals,and uses structuralist narrative analysis and content analysis to show the country promotes policy changes by policy narrative adjustment.Before the reform and opening up,during the period of agricultural collectivization in China,the state constructed a policy narrative system of the “collective center” on rural land rights.After the founding of P.R.C.,the national rural land rights structure was frequently adjusted during the period of socialist revolution and socialist construction,and the transformation of the “distributed” rural land rights pattern owned by individuals to the collectively owned “collective” rural land rights pattern was completed.In this regard,from the choice of discourse objects,the construction of policy issues,the production of policy beliefs and the application of narrative strategies,this paper examines the narrative of national policies in this period.It can be seen that the state has constructed a policy narrative system of the “collective center” on rural land rights.Among them,the national policy narrative chose the peasant class and the landlord class as the discourse object,giving them the roles of “victims” and “villains” respectively;policy issues focused on the superiority of agricultural cooperatives and the “release” of benefits;The concept of “collective property rights” on rural land was established;in terms of narrative strategy,the state carried out “cost-benefit” calculation and contradiction modification on collective ownership and private ownership of rural land rights.After the reform and opening up,during the period of reform of the Three rights separation of rural land in China,the state constructed a policy narrative system of “market center” on rural land rights.At the end of the 1970 s,the Household Contract Responsibility System(HCRS)established rural land rights as the core by separating the ownership and use rights of rural land rights.However,starting from 2014,the state has proposed the “three rights” separation tto realize the ownership,contracting and management rights of rural land,.In this regard,based on the framework of the policy change narrative structure,11 secondary operational definitions are established.Within content analysis method and Nvivo11 analysis tool,the related texts of People's Daily in 1979-2018 were equally sampled and analyzed,and the characteristics of policy narrative system of “market center” on rural land rights were examined and presented.The results show that in the policy narrative system of “market center” on rural land rights,the discourse object focuses on the emerging rural land management subject;the policy issues show the characteristics of the diversification of rural land rights;the policy beliefs also begin to pay more attention to “efficiency and rights” and its significance of the practice of rural land rights;narrative strategy no longer only emphasizes family production,but pays more attention to market and people's livelihood.In the period of different rural land rights systems reform,the national policy narrative laid the foundation for putting forward policy changes,promoting the cognition transformation of farmers' groups and implementing policies.Through the analysis of the national policy narrative on rural land rights before and after the reform and opening up,we can conclude that the national policy narrative is also synchronized with the narrative structure and content at different levels with the change of national policies.When major institutional changes occur,policy narratives need to complete “systematic” transformations,including discourse objects,policy issues,policy beliefs,and narrative strategies;when it does not involve fundamental changes in core values or policy beliefs,policy narratives will perform generally mild or progressive debugging.Moreover,the style and narrative content of the national policy narrative on rural land rights under different political systems are also different.In addition,the level of policy beliefs in policy narrative transformation,the relationship between pre-and post-policy narratives and the relationship with the current legal system will also have a positive or negative impact on policy changes.Under the policy narrative of different rural land rights,people have basically formed policy cognition and behavior choices related to the characteristics of policy narrative.Now,China is advancing the reform of three rights separation on rural land,but there are many ambiguities in its institutional design,which also lead to differences in perceptions and deviations in practice.In this regard,the state needs to further strengthen the "market center" policy narrative to correct various types of deviations and misunderstandings.The innovation of this paper is to broaden the perspective of China's public policy reseach,deepen the understanding of the national policy narrative at the macro level,and provide narrative suggestions for the smooth development of the new round of reform of three rights separation on rural land. |
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