Study On Policy Change Of "Ban E-bike" In Guangzhou Based On Policy Process Theory

"Ban e-bike" policy of Guangzhou has been the disputed subject by the scholars and the public. Summarily, two important reasons are included, on one hand, "ban e-bike" policy affect large interests field, policy influence related to interests and behavioral value orientation of the social public, as well as stability of urban traffic safety and harmonious development of the society; on the other hand, the change of "ban e-bike" policy has become nearly abnormal, compared with the normal policy adjustment. However, in 2006, ban e-bike registering and riding on the road in Guangzhou was first put forward. After 8 years, in 2014, "Five Prohibitions" policy was set up, namely ban-sale, ban-oil, ban parking and ban sitting. This policy change shows "Five Prohibitions" policy is the enhanced version compared with ban-riding. Although this change did not adjust policy tools and path, the policy targets increased significantly. Even so, the final results of change cannot bring about the expected benefits, and caused a bigger dispute, making "ban e-bike" policy deep into chaos. What are the causes of maintenance for "ban e-bike" policy, why it’s difficult to realize agreement in policy adjustment, what are the reasons for policy failure, above which have become the motivation and direction of this paper.The research contents of policy change relates to a result-orientation and process-orientation, the former concentrates on range and direction of policy change, and the latter emphasizes influencing factors of policy change. It’s hard to completely interpret this complex process. The policy process theory occupies an important position in explaining policy phenomenon, based on this perspective, multiple streams theory can be used to describe pre-decision process of policy changes, advocacy coalition theory and policy network theory can be explained strategic interaction process, respectively from beliefs and interest of different actors, and then analyze the effects of policy change. The blend of two theories are mainly derived that values and interests in the policy process are also affected and complementary n many situations. Therefore, based on policy process theory, it can give the new interpretation of the "ban e-bike" policy change in Guangzhou.After analysis of policy change process, outcome and controversies of "ban e-bike" policy in Guangzhou, this paper first explores why the policy was entered into government’s agenda by application of multiple streams theory, and made some revisions about multiple streams theory of Kingdon, discussed how improper multiple streams lead to the formation of "ban e-bike" policy in Guangzhou, in order to analyze its decision process. Studies have shown the position and intensity of each stream is not identical, including easy identification of problem stream, incomplete political stream and relatively lack of policy stream. It is the imperfect and obstructed multiple streams of "ban e-bike" policy in Guangzhou, including incompatible between "ban e-bike" solution and judging criteria, the closeness of policy community etc., laid hidden trouble for encountering setbacks even failure of "ban e-bike" policy implementation. Afterwards, in order to implement the research setback of actor-level by multiple streams theory, continue to explore policy process and defects combining advocacy coalitions with policy network theory, explaining why this policy failed and whether the stricter "Five Prohibitions" policy can be the final output. The former explained the dynamic barriers of policy change based on the profound analysis of actors’belief system, and change of resources between support "ban e-bike" coalition and oppose "ban e-bike" coalition in the policy implementation; the latter explored characters of different actors and their patterns of interaction, meanwhile, analyzed existing problems of policy network structure and their impacts on policy change. Studies have shown the reasons for making "ban e-bike" policy difficult to change include many aspects:different and stable belief system between support "ban e-bike" coalition and oppose "ban e-bike" coalition cannot effectively reconcile, the strength of oppose "ban e-bike" coalition in policy implementation continue to expand, policy network actors lack of interaction due to differences in resources and power, and dependent policy network structure influences policy change etc.Based on analysis of the above policy process theory, policy change process and outcome of "ban e-bike" in Guangzhou was comprehensively interpreted. It’s not difficult to find three theories have their own advantages, complementary, and enrich the study of policy process. Specifically, the multiple streams theory explains the before-decision process of policy change, demonstrated the structure of multiple streams and its lack, points out defects in the decision-making process, so as to provide specific guidance for promoting proper multiple streams to flow into the government agenda in the future; advocacy coalition theory and policy network theory explain the obstacles of policy change from beliefs and interests interaction of actors. Based on these, the paper puts forward some policy suggestions to optimize "ban e-bike" policy change process in Guangzhou:secure policy legitimacy and rationality to gain wide acceptance, such as the government should cultivate public rationality of issue network, use the policy community to achieve policy softening, carry out education propaganda in order to reduce policy divergence, prepare plans for voice of policy opposition and compensation measures should be included; break closed "ban e-bike" policy network, expand the network boundary, and improve network openness and integration; attempt to change policy beliefs through policy learning among alliance, promoting formation of policy consensus; actively eliminate impacts on the key interest groups of "ban e-bike" policy; optimize policy agenda-setting model, and realize the interaction of multi-stakeholders.