China's Response To Emergencies Of Social Policy To Develop Modalities For Research

The emergencies frequently take place with the gradual deepening of the social transformation in China. Such emergencies and a series of reactions triggered by them has become a common condition in policy-making. The emergency-oriented social policy-making model, namely to respond to the emergencies events has become one of the most important policy-making models in China. It is very helpful for us to research the emergency-oriented social policy-making model so as to better understand the traits and rules of the emergency-oriented policy-making model and provide useful implication for the governments to improve their capacity of responding to the emergencies.This dissertation focuses on emergency-oriented social policy-making model, which is based on not only the general literature review but also the practice of social policy-making to respond to the current emergencies. This paper tries to deeply analyze the current status, influencing factors and optimization of the emergency-oriented social policy-making model through interpreting two representative and typical cases. This first is the birth of Public Health Emergency Regulation, which is to respond to SARS. The second is the issue of the Methods to Aid and Manage the Homeless and the Beggars in the Urban Areas, which is stemmed from the Sun Zhi-gang Event.This research proposes that the emergency-oriented social policy-making model is jointly shaped by the unexpected events, the specialty of the response to the emergencies and the basic trait of policy-making, which is also a theoretical description of the interaction relationship between the influencing factors on the emergency-oriented social policy-making model. So the birth of the emergency-oriented social policy-making model is not an accidental phenomenon but an inevitable choice for governments to adapt to the external environment and improve the effectiveness to respond to the emergencies. The foundation of this policy-making model is based on both the micro and macro levels, and it is the outcome of the re-organization and interaction of the policy-making's relevant actors in a variety of subjective environment or conditions. Around this central subject, this research constructs a binary analytical framework of the emergency-oriented social policy-making model with a focus on the in-depth analysis of the influencing factors of such policy-making model, based on which the optimizational path of the emergency-oriented social policy-making model and the strategic choice to develop the social policy in China in the future are proposed.This research is composed of five parts:Part I (Chapter one): Introduction. This part firstly introduces the background and the significance of this research. And then the research gap is analyzed based on the literature review and some concepts are defined, based on which a binary analytical framework of the emergency-oriented social policy-making model is proposed. Finally, this part introduces the research content, research methods and research innovation.Part II (Chapter two): Preface to the emergency-oriented social policy-making model. The definition, cause factors and traits of the emergency-oriented social policy-making model, and the advantages and disadvantages of such model to the social policy practice are analyzed in this part. The emergency-oriented social policy-making model is the product to respond to the special requirements of the emergencies, so it takes on specialty in the areas of the central factors, objectives, procedures and process of policy-making. Such model has both positive and negative influence on the social policy practice in China.Part III (Chapter three, Chapter four and Chapter five): The micro approach to analyzing the emergency-oriented social policy-making model. These three chapters respectively analyze and interpret the roles and influence of the unexpected events, public opinions and governments' response in the process of social policy-making.As the trigger mechanism of the social policy-making, emergencies' convex mirror effect, aggregation effects, opportunity effects and demonstrational effects respectively play the roles in exposing the policy shortcomings, leading to the policy needs, promoting the improvement of the social policy and optimizing the policy environment. The media opinions, public opinions and elite opinions caused by the emergencies create enormous opinion effects and become another power to affect the social policy-making model. The influence of the public opinion effects run through the whole process of policy-making, which improves the visibility of the policy issues, promotes the building of the policy agenda and affects the direction of decision-making. The governments' response is the central factor of the emergency-oriented social policy-making model and their central role is based on the governments' own responsibilities and the comparable advantages of governments over other response actors. After the emergencies, the governments consciously enhance the diagnostic capabilities, adjust the policy-making agenda, improve the policy-making strategies and finally realize the improvement of the social policy-making.Part IV (Chapter six): The macro approach to analyzing the emergency-oriented social policy-making model. Nowadays, the rapid social transformation, the development and marketization of the mass media and the transformation of the governments' administrating philosophy constitute the social basis of the emergency-oriented social policy-making model. The social transformation and the special forms of the emergencies that caused by the social transformation provide the realistic motivation and resources to develop the emergency-oriented social policy-making model. The development and marketization of the mass media strengthen the influence of the emergencies and public opinions on the social policy-making process. The transformation of the governments' administrating philosophy infiltrates in all aspects of the governments' response, not only directly affecting the influence of emergencies and public opinions on the emergency-oriented social policy-making, but also playing the final decisive role in the forming of the emergency-oriented social policy-making model through controlling the emergencies and public opinions.Part V (Chapter seven): The optimization analysis of the emergency-oriented social policy-making model. From the current situation, the emergency-oriented social policy-making model still has its own realistic space. However, it is necessary to analyze the hinder factors based on which to optimize the current emergency-oriented social policy-making model if it is expected that such model can maximize its positive role. In the long run, the strategic choice to develop the social policy in China should transfer from the current emergency-oriented model into a developmental model with a focus on the forward-looking, systematic ness and innovation of the social policy-making.