Interest Groups And Government Decision-making In China And The United States A Comparative Study

Since the reform and opening-up in 1978,the macro structure of Chinese society has experienced great historical change.With the reform deepened in recent years,political democracy and rule by law advancing,the transition in the relationship between state and society comes into a crucial period.During the process Chinese society transforms from a traditional society to modern one,from a homogeneous and single society to heterogeneous and multidivisional one,the differentiation of society interests and the reconstruct of its interest structure are the most important and profound changes.The direct result is that more and more interest groups pervade actively in all aspects of the social life,and that they have made great influence on the government decision and public policy.It has become a practical issue for the good governance of the government which couldn't be evaded.This dissertation consists of seven chapters as follows:Chapterâ… :This chapter mainly expatiates and compares the concept of interest groups in America and that in China.Through defining the term"interest group" which the western scholars and Chinese scholars bring forward,I try to analyze the common connotations and extensions of the concept under different social systems and political cultures.On this basis,I try to expatiate and compare the different characteristics of the interest groups in America and in china,analyze the impact which the political system,political culture,social development phase and historical tradition have on them,and explore the features of Chinese interest groups in the socially transitional period.Chapterâ…¡:This chapter mainly examines the relationship between state and interest groups under different theoretical frameworks from the perspectives of the pluralism and corporatism.I intend to find out the right approach of institutional links between the national system and social mechanism by analyzing the role of interest groups in different national or social mechanisms.This chapter provides that the corporatism,at this stage,is the best mode choice for political participation in which the interest groups attached themselves to the politics.Such kind of viewpoint comprehensively considers a good many factors,such as Chinese historical tradition,political culture,political realities in the socially transitional period,practical needs to build harmonious society,and practical basis of civil society growth.Chapterâ…¢:Through the analysis and comparison of political culture which is the important factor to form the interest groups and interest expression system,I want to penetrate into the intrinsic roots of American and Chinese interest group's behavior orientations from the perspective of political culture. On the basis of analyzing traditional Chinese culture and that of social transitional period,I emphasize the influence which the political culture imposes on the behavior of interest groups.The main argument of this chapter is that all the orientations for various kinds of systems and behaviors gain the support of political culture in the political life.Generally speaking,the American political culture influence and shape interest groups mainly in two ways.First, the political culture constructs the status of interest groups,and guide and shape their intrinsic value preference in certain political culture atmosphere. Second,it can provide interest groups with awareness model to deal with problems,regulate and dominate their behaviors choice,and decide their orientations of political behaviors in the particular political system in the US.So it can establish standard and rational social connections between personal political role and political system.The political behaviors for Chinese interest groups are influenced largely by the traditional political culture.And their behaviors also take on the phase character in the socially transitional period.Chaptersâ…£,â…¤,andâ…¥are the main parts of this dissertation.Chapterâ…£mainly compares the affected object,mode,role and function of the interest groups in China and in the US from the view of how the interest groups influence government policy making.On the basis of the comparison and analysis,I point out that interest groups have both positive and negative significance to government policy making in the socially transitional period in China.Chapterâ…¤objectively assesses the impact of interest group on the government policy making in the US in different aspects:the constitutional structure,interest group types and new trends.I bring forward some ideas:the effect and function of interest group takes on indirect and disperse character; the intervention of interest group in the diplomatic policy makes the policy making process become a democratic political process;the influence of the interest groups on the American diplomatic policy takes on phase characteristics,for example a privatized one in a given phase;therefore,we should look at the interest group's influence from a dynamic viewpoint.On the basis of explaining the changes in the Chinese diplomatic decision-making process after reform,I think that there appear some new trends in how interest groups influence the Chinese diplomatic policy.Some new trends are as follows:interest groups exert more and more pressure on the Chinese diplomatic policy making after the reform;the local government and some institutions of central government become the new interest principals;Chinese diplomatic policy is influenced by the irrational nationalistic interest groups in certain degree.In order to understand the interest group' impact on diplomatic policy and to strengthen the realistic guidance significance,I carry through empirical research through case study on the role and impact in Sino-U.S relation of the American interest groups for intellectual property rights and on the Military-Industrial Complex and American diplomatic policy to Taiwan in Chaptersâ…¥.Therefore,We can anatomy the interrelation and impact between the interest groups and American government policy-making from the view of dynamic political process.Through the comparison of the system environment for interest group regulation in China and in America,as well as the comparative analysis of interest group's role in supervising public rights in China and America,Chapter Seven provides that how to ensure the interest group's healthy development and strengthen its regulation has become a pressing problem to the government,as the pluralism in social interest increases.Therefore,the chapter provides some ideas:we should define the leading and coordinating role of the government,make the government perform its positive,function sufficiently,construct the multi-governing regulation model under the dominance of the government;the regulation and management of the interest group transform from the government choice model to social choice model gradually;we should strengthen the interest group regulation legislation and system construction,consummate the interest group regulation law system and provide a sound system environment for the interest group regulation and supervision.At the same time,because the interest group is a important constituent part of the social power,I think that how to implement sufficiently the supervision function of interest groups is an important part of what we should study seriously.In conclusion,I think the emergence and development of interest groups is an inevitable phenomenon of social development.In the transitional period of a society,the influence which the interest groups have on the policy making of a government has been a fact which couldn't be evaded.We should envisage the fact that the contradiction and conflict between different groups will become more frequent,conspicuous and normal.They are the inevitable phenomina We must think carefully about how to seek interests and reduce the harm,how to bring into play the active function of interest groups and reduce their negative influence.So in conclusion,I provide certain approaches and measures to avoid the negative influence of interest groups on governments' policy making and to guarantee good governance,such as how to prevent interest groups from being politicalized or ideologicalized,to reinforce the capability construction of local governments,to establish and consummate the government-dominated interest integration mechanism,to further deepen the reform of the administrative management system,and to establish the government of service more rapidly.At the same time when we reinforce the authority of the government,we should construct the benign and interplay relationship between the state and society,make the government's interest more convergent with that of the society.We should envisage the fact of the existence of interest groups and theirs function in the public policy making process.We should shape the public spirit and social responsibility of interest groups and its members with good social value.