| Failure in food safety regulation leads to the serious situations in the field of Food Safety of our country currently. Main causes have been explored and it turned out that apart from the internal factors such as the lagging regulation mode and abuse of regulation power, another non-ignorable cause, lack of public participation, also plays its role as an external factor. Public participation in the food safety regulation is actually not only a requirement of rights by the public when confronted with the dangerous and harmful food safety circumstances, but also the vested target pursued by the revolution in the field of food safety regulation led by the government. Democratic consciousness, represented by the public awareness of participation, should be what the construction of political ecology civilization is mainly going for, and also, should be a intellectual foundation which is needed in a legal society. Public participation into food safety regulation is the trend we all should follow because it perfectly conform to the tide of social development, as well as the choice without any alternative if our country has decided to solve the current problems in the field of food safety.Our study is based on a stance that public participation into food safety regulation will make positive efforts. Beginning from the fundamentals of the food safety regulation theory, we made related definitions clear and combed corresponding intellectual ideas, which would act as a precondition. Then we explained why public participation is a practical solution to the problems in food safety regulation by analyzing the reality, requirement and current conditions, opening a entrance into our whole study. After that, we looked into current situations of public participation in food safety regulation and point out several main problems existing in the steps of regulation legislation, decision-making and execution, casting light on further thinking threads. Then we tried to get enlightenment from foreign experiences in food safety regulation by analyzing abroad examples of public participation in this field. Finally, we returned to the inland procedure of public participation in food safety regulation and from these observations we tabled proposals with maximum benefits to solving the problems existing in the steps of legislation, decision-making and execution. Involving in all the instructions above, this paper consists of five chapters:The first chapter, Basic theory in the study field of public participation in food safety regulation. First, we made definitions of "public participation"and "food safety regulation" more clear. These two key words are so important because they are what our subjects are closely involving with and went through the whole presentations of this paper. We compared the phase "public participation" with "civic participation" and "citizen participation", in order to help the meaning of "public participation" be understood more exactly. What we want to be known is that, the public participation is a democratized public management in which social groups who share common interests and benefits participate into the management of public affairs and furthermore make a considerable influence on the decisions-makings in this area. Also, we progressively analyzing the concepts of "food", "food safety" and "food safety regulation" to clarify the target of our study as well as food safety regulation. Second, we presented the theoretical basis of our study by looking into the source and theoretical foundations of food safety regulation. The theory of participatory democracy theoretically supports the public participation into food safety regulation, and confirm the legitimacy and necessity of this solution, based on the theories of democracy power, procedural justice and failure in regulation.The second chapter, Public participation into food safety regulation is a practical choice. Beginning from the practical situations of public participation in food safety regulation in our country, we definitized the realistic context of this phase. Then, we explained why public participation into food safety regulation is a reality demand, from a microscopic view that "public participation is a primary choice to control the danger in food safety" as well as "an objective requirement to raise the level of food safety regulation", and from a macroscopic view that "public participation is the intrinsic need to promote political ecologic civilization" as well as "an important insurance to realize the dream of social harmony and social rules by law". Finally, we discuss the feasibility of public participation into food safety regulation in four aspects:politics, economic, society and legality.The third chapter, Domestic observations of public participation in food safety regulation. From an overall perspective of current situation of public participation in food safety regulation, we can see that a reasonable and well-organized participation is hard to perform due to a lack of qualitified guidance. Aimed to effectively play an active role of public participation in food safety regulation, and to insure the realization of the power of public democracy, our study targeted the primary steps of food safety regulation to find out how to realize the public participation in the frame of regulation procedure constituted by several steps. In the step of legislation, several main problems exist such as incomplete participating rights of the public, constrained range of participated steps and lack of rules and regulations for public participation. In the step of decision-making, problem also exist in the area of qualities and range of public decision-making. In the step of execution, problems still exist in formal hearing, such as a constrained scope of application, non-uniformed effects among the hearing records and lack of full justice of the host of the hearing. In an informal hearing procedure, an conflict scope of application, too restrictively constrained range of the subjects definition and unclear effect may also cause problems.The fourth chapter, Experienced abroad samples of public participation in food safety regulation. We analyzed samples represented by America, Japan and Europe, in the aspects of legislation, decision-making and execution. Through these analysis we concluded common characteristics among the three countries:a complete system of regulations of food safety regulation, sufficient insurance for the participating rights of the public, democratic organizations of the structure of departments and stuff, high organizational degree of public participation.The fifth chapter, Ways to improve the circumstances of public participation in food safety regulation. In this chapter; we made up solutions for improvements based on three critical steps in the procedure of public participation into food safety regulation, these are legislation, decision-making and execution. Improvement can be realized by normalizing the legislation on public participation, enhancing the capability of the public to make decisions in the food safety regulation, and by raising the level of public participation into the execution of food safety regulation. In the step of legislation, improvement could be made by clarifying the basic principles and concrete form of public participation into legislation of food safety regulation, and by taking corresponding measures. In the step of decision-making, we could make improvement by clarifying the intrinsic mechanism of public participation in decision making procedure of food safety regulation, and by making reasonable configuration on the details of decision-making rights. In the step of execution, we can make comprehensive explanations and scientific design on how public participate in the execution of food safety regulation to make development. By solving two primary problems of insufficient participating rights and low efficiency in the formal and informal hearings in execution procedures of public participation in food safety regulation, practical improvements can be realized in this area. |
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