A Study On Fairness Of Public Policy Implementation

Since the reform and opening up,the achievements of China's economic development have been widely recognized by the world,but at the same time,social contradictions have frequently occurred and conflicts of interest have intensified.As pointed out in the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved.What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life.Public policy means the authoritative allocation of values.It works as an important tool for coordinating interests,maintaining social order,and promoting social equity.The implementation process of public policy has always been regarded as the "last mile”to achieve the policy objectives.Therefore,fairness of the implementation process and the implementation results is directly affecting the effectiveness of public policy.In order to let all the people share the achievements of our reform and economic development,this fairness is of great importance in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.Policy implementation is generally regarded as an issue in the administrative field.However,there is also a political process when a policy comes to the implementation stage.The political process of policy implementation also has the pursuit of fairness and justice,not just efficiency.Policy fairness is not only an important issue in the policy formulation stage,but also an important issue in the policy implementation stage.It is a very valuable topic for systematic discussion and analysis.The aim of this study is trying to answer the question of how to guarantee the fairness of public policy from the perspective of its implementation process.The main content of this research is to explore the relevant factors affecting the fairness in the implementation process of public policy,and to analyze several models which are widely used currently for ensuring the fairness in policy implementation process.Focusing on the main theme,the thesis is organized by the following parts:The first chapter is an introduction.This chapter introduces the research background and the significance of this study from both theoretical and practical aspects.The main concepts involved in the study such as public policy and public policy implementation are defined here.And the author summarizes and analyzes the related research in the literature review session.Based on the previous research,the author illustrates the general framework of this study and explains its significance and shortage.This chapter makes the cushion to the main body of content.The second chapter focuses on the definition of fairness and the criterion of fairness in the policy implementation process.It argues "fairness" itself is a complex concept.From the perspective of Marxist theory,"fairness”is a historical and multi-layered,as well as objective and subjective concept.In the practice of public policy,fairness means multiplicity and reconciliation.That is,policies must take into account the multi-interest relationship and reconcile the whole and individual,the immediate and long-term interests.In particular,policies are usually in support of the disadvantaged groups,not just simply following the rule of "one size fits all".At the same time,policy fairness is different from individual fairness.It is universal and mandatory.In this chapter,the four executive characteristics of policy fairness are also discussed:information fairness,administration fairness,response fairness,and opportunity fairness.The third chapter discusses the phenomenon of unfairness in policy implementation process.It explores the causes and influencing factors of this unfairness from the following aspects:the main body of policy implementation,the target group of policy implementation,and the external conditions for policy implementation.The fourth chapter discusses several representative models for ensuring fairness in the process of policy implementation from the perspectives of historical origins,theoretical basis and operational mechanisms.It then analyzes the effectiveness and limitations of these models.The fifth chapter emphasizes and analyzes the particularity of the party system in the China's politics and policy implementation process.It highlights the role of the Communist Party of China in promoting the fairness in the process of policy implementation.The sixth chapter is case study.Fairness in the higher educational system is being attached great importance by the CPC,the government,and even the whole society as well as the academia.Therefore,the author takes the admission and financial help policy in higher educational system for example to test and verify the hypothetical influencing factors and ensuring mechanisms.It starts from the policy development process and changes to discuss specific cases of the policy,and further summarizes several typical models and relevant factors affecting fairmess in the process of policy implementation.Finally,the last section concludes the whole thesis and highlights the importance of a joint effort for ensuring the fairness in policy implementation process.The important conclusions of this research are summarized as followed:First,policy implementation is generally regarded as an issue in the administrative field.However,this paper believes that policy implementation involves a political process,and there is also a pursuit of fairness and justice,not just efficiency.Policy fairmess is not only an important issue in the policy formulation stage,but also an important issue in the policy implementation stage.It is a very valuable topic for systematic research and analysis.Second,this paper believes that fairmess has multiple levels of meaning in practice.Therefore,egalitarianism seems to be fair across the board,but its essence is unfair.In policy implementation stage,we must balance the interests of all parties,especially the interest of the disadvantaged groups.Third,this paper explores the causes and influencing factors of the unfairness in policy implementation from the following aspects:the main body of policy implementation,the target group of policy implementation,and the external conditions for policy implementation.As mentioned in most studies of policy implementation,the unfair implementation of policies is usually because of irregularities of administrative po wer,opacity,or conflicts between the self-interest of the policy enforcement entity and public interest.What's more,the unfairness is also resulted from the difficulty to reach consensus about its complexity and the gap in policy implementation capabilities,and so on.The author examines several typical models for ensuring fairness in the process of policy implementation and finds out the effectiveness and finiteness of these models separately.Fourth,policy implementation process can be divided into two phases.The first phase is the re-enactment of policies and the refinement of macro-policies.The second is the operational process of specific policy directly to the policy target groups.this paper argues that it is necessary to comprehensively consider the factors that affect the fairness of policy implementation.And it is important to take into account of the effectiveness and finiteness of the existing mechanisms for ensuring fairness in the policy implementation,and to adopt suitable measures to form a joint force of the executive body,to make a consensus of fairness in the whole society,to improve the development of information capabilities,and to create a network for supervision.