Study On The Public Decision-making In View Of The Theory Of Deliberative Democracy

The theory of deliberative democracy is a new paradigm of democratic theory in Western at the end of the 20th century, which demonstrates a new development and turn of the western democracy theory and arouses more and more the concerns of the scholars. Within the 30 years of the development of the theory of deliberative democracy, with the publication of many related works and articles, many scholars deepen the thought and the understanding about the theory of deliberative democracy from all aspects so that they gradually improve the theory of deliberative democracy. However, the most of academic study about the theory of deliberative democracy focuses largely on the theory itself, such as the study about the connotation and the theoretical base of the theory of deliberative democracy, the study about the positioning of the theory of deliberative democracy in the democracy theory system, the study about the relations of the theory of deliberative democracy and the Value concepts such as the freedom, equality, fairness, justice and so on, which enrich the theory of deliberative democracy itself, but ignores the focuses on the governmental governance, the public decision-making and institution construction. The subject of the public decision-making is a basic subject in the politics theory and an important process of dealing with the specific issues and managing with the specific matters by people, which is in the centre of the political activities. The Public decision-making relates to the development of the society and the politics, which have an impact on the effectiveness of public activity. Because of the important theoretical significance and the closed contact with the reality, the Public decision-making becomes a subject of the deliberative democracy. There has three points on the study of the deliberative democracy about the Public decision-making. First, the study conform to the general trend from the normal study to the empirical study of the deliberative democracy, which helps to strengthen the degree concerning the extent of practical problems of the deliberative democracy and improve the development of the deliberative democracy. Second, the study helps to achieve the goals of the legitimacy, the scientization and the democratization of the public decision-making. Third, the study has an important role in the Enlightenment on the democratization process of the public decision-making in China.There are many subjects related to the public decision-making, but based on the studying and carding from the works of the theory of the deliberative democracy, the paper believes that there are three aspects about the study on the public decision-making in the theory of the deliberative democracy, which is about the study on the legitimacy of the public decision-making by the deliberative democracy, the study on the model of the public decision-making by the deliberative democracy, the study on the citizen participation in the public decision-making by the deliberative democracy. The study on the three subjects in the deliberative democracy is highly relevant, which corresponds to the three value targets of the public decision-making which contain the legitimacy, the scientization and the democratization. The study on the public decision-making by the deliberative democracy gets the key points of the subject because these value targets are pursued and argued.There are two reasons about the study on the public decision-making by the deliberative democracy. First, almost all the advocators of the theory of deliberative democracy have emphasized the linkages between the deliberative democracy and the legitimacy, who think that the deliberative democracy is essential for the study on the public decision-making. Second, the study on the political legitimacy by the theory of the legitimacy is systematic, but the theory of the legitimacy make no more enough study on the legitimacy of the public decision-making, which contain the neglect to the study on the legitimacy of the public decision-making by the experience-oriented theory of the legitimacy and the vague argument of study on the legitimacy of the public decision-making by the norm-oriented theory of the legitimacy. Therefore the theory of deliberative democracy must first study on the legitimacy of public decision-making. The study on the public decision-making by the deliberative democracy has undergone a process of easy-to-digest. Initially the theory of the deliberative democracy demonstrates that the legitimacy of the public decision-making is rooted in the deliberative process, and analysis the significance of the deliberative process to the majority rule. And with the deepening of the study, the theorists of the deliberative democracy have not only studied on that the legitimacy of the public decision-making is rooted in the deliberative process, but also pay more attention to make the goal of the legitimacy of public decision-making come true. In other words, they begin to study the specific realizing conditions for the legitimacy of decision-making. The greatest contribution of the study on the legitimacy of public decision-making by the deliberative democracy is that it not only enriches the theory of the legitimacy itself, but also provides a new perspective and theoretical support to the study on the legitimacy of public decision-making. In particular, many theorists of the theory of the deliberative democracy all support the "Epistemic Proceduralism", which has the great significance in judging the legitimacy of public decision-making. But at the same time there are some limitations of the study by the deliberative democracy. For example, certain public decision-making in reality may also produce unjust results through the deliberative process. The study on the legitimacy of the public decision-making by the deliberative democracy may be used by the strong individuals or groups.Besides the study on the legitimacy of the public decision-making, the theory of the deliberative democracy also makes the models of the public decision-making as an important subject. This is mainly because that in the public decision-making theory the goal of the models of the public decision-making is about how to make the scientization of the public policy-making come true. And there has close ties between the scientization and the legitimacy of public decision-making. Scientifically formulating and implementing public policies are important guarantees to the legitimacy of public decision-making. Therefore, the scientific and rational models of the deliberative democracy have direct impact on realizing the goal of the scientization of the public policy-making. The theory of the deliberative democracy not only focuses on all existing models of the public decision-making, but also provides a new model of the public decision-making——the deliberative model of the public decision-making, which absorbs many advantages of the existing models of the public decision-making, but also has many independent characteristics, such as the inclusive, procedural, institutional and dynamic characteristics, which make the deliberative model of the public decision-making play a positive and important role in the process of the public decision-making. In the first time, there are three functions about the deliberative model of the public decision-making at the stage of the formulation of public policies. First, the deliberative model of the public decision-making is good at breaking the policy monopolies in the process of the formulation of public policies, which ensures the policy-making process setting up on the basis of the people. Second, the deliberative model of the public decision-making is good at resolving the problem of the public decision-making arising by the limited rationality in the policy-making process. Third, the deliberative model of the public decision-making is good at boycotting the "Camera Obscura" problem in the policy-making process, which protects the openness of the public policy-making process. And in the second time, there are also three functions about the deliberative model of the public decision-making at the stage of the implementation of public policies. First, the deliberative model of the public decision-making is good at restricting the expansion of executive power, which ensures the implementation of the results of the public decision-making. Second, the deliberative model of the public decision-making is good at testing the nonconsensual decision-making, which improves the policies in the policy-implementing process. Third, the deliberative model of the public decision-making is good at cultivating the ruling Virtues of the administrative staff and the sense of responsibility of the participants. The study on the models of the public decision-making by the theory of the deliberative democracy not only enriches the content of the models of the public decision-making, but also provides a new theoretical support for realizing the goal of the scientization and the justification of the public policy-making. But there are some limitations of the study by the deliberative democracy. The theory of the deliberative democracy should continue to study the application of the deliberative model of the public decision-making. And the study on the deliberative institutions should also be more refined.The study on the public decision-making can not ignore the democratization of public decision-making besides the study on the legitimacy and the scientization of the public decision-making. As a democratic theory, the theory of the deliberative democracy will naturally concern about how to achieve the goal of the democratization of the public decision-making, which reflects the citizen participation in the public decision-making. First of all, the theory of deliberative democracy defines the main body of citizen who participate in the process of the public decision-making, which analysis the rights and responsibilities of the main body of citizen. Then, the theory of deliberative democracy also explores the concrete form of the citizen participation in the public decision-making, such as the deliberative polls and the citizen jury and so on, which are different from the pre-existing and traditional forms of the public decision-making. In addition, the theory of deliberative democracy responds to the criticism of other theories such as the social choice theory and the theory of the democracy of the difference. There are two contribution of the study on the citizen participation in the public decision-making by the theory of the deliberative democracy. On the one hand, the study on the citizen participation in the public decision-making by the theory of the deliberative democracy has found a new way of studying on the democratization of the public decision-making. On the other hand, the response of the theory of the deliberative democracy to other theories may promote the process of the study on the democratization of the public decision-making. But there are some limitations of the study by the theory of the deliberative democracy. For example, the theory of the deliberative democracy should study more and more the problems in the real world, such as the problem of the representation, the efficiency of the public decision-making as well as the quality of the public decision-making. The theory of the deliberative democracy should make the criticism of other theories more elaborate.As a new paradigm of western democracy theory in the late 20th century, the study on the public decision-making by the theory of the deliberative democracy not only has great theoretical innovation, but also has important value to the problem in the western reality of the public decision-making. The theory of the deliberative democracy is deeply rooted in the political reality of the developed capitalist countries of Western, and there are different aspects about the polity, the conditions of the society and history, which decide that the construction of the china's democracy will not be a replica of the western. The problems of the process of the construction of the China's democracy have many substantial differences with the modern challenges the western faced. However, the theory of the deliberative democracy advocates the value of the fairness and the justice, improving the rules and procedures of the democratic decision-making and encouraging the citizen to participate in the public decision-making extensively and rationally, which have many significantly positive valves. Therefore, the study on the public decision-making by the theory of the deliberative democracy can be applied to analyze the China's problem in reality, which has some enlightenment to solve the problems of China. More and more academics and politicians concern about the goal of the democratization of the public decision-making in the process of the current administration reform in China. There are two enlightenment of the theory of the deliberative democracy from the levels of the value and the system. At the value level, the citizen-oriented value should be established for the government staff and citizens. Then the dialogue and deliberation between the government staff and citizens should be strengthened. At the system level, there are three enlightenment of the theory of the deliberative democracy. First, it needs to improve the system of People's Congress and the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Second, it needs to strengthen decision-making systems in the decision-making process, which include the system of public hearings, the system of public openness, the system of the public consultation and the system of the responsibility in the process of the public decision-making and so on. Third, it needs to strive to explore the new type of the system of the grass-roots democracy. When faced to the specific issues, it should not copy all the theories of the deliberative democracy, but take into account the specificity of China's national conditions. It is not desirable to apply all the theories of the deliberative democracy to solving any of the problems in China. Only based on the actual situation in China, drawing on the theory of the deliberative democracy which is fit for the development of the democratization of the public decision-making in China can really promote the process of democratization of public decision-making in China.