Public Participation In Public Governance In China

Over the past decades,the academic community has accumulated thousands of cases studies that describe what happened in public participation in China.These cases studies greatly enrich people's perception of the contexts and process of public participation in China.The majority of case studies in the field of citizen participation are based on single case studies focusing on sector-specific issues,they are more focused on the species rather than the genus.From a methodological point of view,case studies for a particular event,or focusing on a particular field,are often difficult to consider as "ideal types" in the overall population.By reviewing the existing public participation research,this dissertation finds that there are still several major problems in the field of public participation that have not yet been resolved:firstly,despite these well-accepted normative appeal of public participation,what seems to be lacking in public administration is a clear logical framework that defines the outputs and outcomes of citizen participation and evaluates the relationship between contextual factors,inputs,outputs,and outcomes of participation;secondly,after decades of experience in promoting public participation in China,it is important to ask 'what difference does it make and how we get it?'.Finally,compared with China,developed countries have a longer history of civic participation in theoretical research and practical experience.So,what are the differences between public participation in China and developed countries?How may we explain them?What inspiration and lessons can China receive as a successor from developed countries?Using a re-analytical study of 102 cases of public participation in China,this dissertation tries to mapping the big picture of Chines public participation over the past decade.It seems that public participation has undergone explosive growth in China during the past decade.Behind this dazzling prosperity,it also shows certain regularities in terms of sponsors,participatory mechanisms,sites of participations,types of issues,the use of ICTs,and so on.Typical sponsors of public participation include government administrative departments,Non-Governmental Organizations,citizens and co-sponsorship.The characteristics of sponsorship in Chinese public participation can be summarized as,government agencies are the main sponsors of public participation and also strong leaders;citizens still choose to express their demands through protest when necessary;there are some public participations sponsored by NGOs,but rarely few;among all the sponsors,co-sponsorship is the most encouraging way for public participation.Different sponsors may seem independent,but in fact,they influence each other in many ways.Based on our analyses,there are six types of public participation mechanisms in China:Contentious action,Inform,Consult,Involve,Deliberation,and Positive action.Based on the results,there are more "shallow" participations than "deep" ones in China,more "shallow"participations in large regions while more "deep" ones in small regions,more "shallow"participations if sponsored by government agencies while more "deep" ones when initiated by co-sponsorship.Combining the main sponsor of public participation and the scale of the location,we can better understand the logic of different mechanisms choices among different public participation activities.ICTs(Information and Communication Technology)have significant impacts on public participation in China,especially to expand the breadth of participation,such as participatory website construction,Online announcement,comments and suggestions through the Internet,and so on.It is slightly insufficient for people to use ICTs to increase the depth of participation through ICTs,such as increasing substantive dialogue opportunities.In addition to describing the current situation of Chinese citizens' participation,this dissertation also summarizes the empirical results of Chinese citizens' participation in the past.This study summarizes the outcomes of public participation in two levels:intermediate outcomes and long-term outcomes.We categorize intermediate outcomes into impacts on the administrative behaviors of government agencies,citizen behaviors,and on the community.Long-term outcomes are more instrumental or normative,and it usually takes a long time to achieve them.Some studies have found that there is a significant positive correlation between citizen input and participation outcomes.Our argument is complementary though slightly different.Based on our research,we argue that,although the positive correlation between public participation and administrative behaviors are significant,different types of mechanism should be treated differently if other intermediate outcomes(likes benefits for citizen behaviors and the community)and final outcomes are the goals.Compared to the shallow ones,deep public participations yield more positive outcomes and will benefit all stakeholders involved.A comparison was made between Chinese and Western public participation based on the cases studies published during the past decade.Here are what we found we found:it seems that western researches have paid more attention to deliberative participation during the past decades;NGOs have become more motivated and involved in public participation activities in western countries;in China,deliberations are more common in the policy implementation stage,while there are more often in policy formation stage or through the whole policy process in western countries.There are more deliberations happened in communities and villages in China,while concentrated at local government level in western countries.From the results of participation,Chinese scholars emphasize citizen supervision through public participation,while Western scholars are more focus on consensus building.The differences in political culture,democratic concepts,governance concepts and governance objectives between China and developed countries are important reasons for their differences in the process design and results of public participation.In the ending,this dissertation summarizes experiences and lessons learned from citizen participation in developed countries,and discusses the research direction of future citizen participation.