A Study Of The Decision-making Factors For Development Planning

Since its founding,the People’s Republic of China has formulated and implemented 13 five-year plans(plans).It is found that the decision-making process of the development planning shows repeated from the "Fifth Five-Year Plan" to the "Sixth Five-Year Plan".Since the reform and opening up,Chinese development planning procedures have gradually returned to normal and become increasingly perfect.Especially from the beginning of the 11 th "Five-year plan",the relevant documents clearly add the two preparation procedures of "linkage and coordination between plans" and "mid-term evaluation and adjustment".Now,the development planning has become one of the most important and successful public policies in China.So,what is the decision-making mechanism for Chinese development planning? Why does it spend such a huge cost of human and financial resources to involve groups such as decision-makers,staff and consultants? Why have the relevant opinions been issued and even the development planning law is in preparation to regulate the planning preparation procedure? Why do we need to increase the two preparation procedures of "linking up and coordinating planning" and "mid-term evaluation and adjustment" ? Unfortunately,the existed relevant researches mainly state the preparation process of the five-year plans(plans)since the founding from vertical perspective of history,and compare the Chinese development plans with the important policy formulation characteristics of the European Union,India and the United States from the perspective of horizontal comparison,without in-depth exploration of the development planning decision-making mechanism.In order to better explore the decision-making mechanism of development planning,this study selects the perspective of "the planning implementation performance" for the first time.On the one hand,for the development planning,the planning implementation is the fundamental purpose of the development planning,while the performance of the planning implementation is an important standard to test the quality of development planning and its decision-making mechanism.On the other hand,oriented by results,we can examine the various links and factors in the decision-making process of development planning,analyze which links and factors are beneficial to implementation and improve implementation performance;which links and factors are not conducive to implementation and improve implementation performance,and analyze the reasons behind.In addition,this study defines the important concepts of decision-making mechanism,decision consensus,text quality and the planning implementation performance.Among them,the decision-making mechanism includes decision-making methods(democratization,scientization and legalization)and adjustment methods(cohesion,coordination and timely regulation adjustment).This study combines two research paradigms of constructivism and positivism to form a complete "scientific round" cycle.First of all,using the research paradigm of constructivism and taking 13 five-year plans as cases,this study analyzes the internal relations among the decision-making mechanism(democratization,scientization,legalization,connection and coordination,and timely regulation adjustment),decision consensus,text quality,and planning implementation performance,puts forward relevant propositions,and builds a theoretical model.Then,using the positivist research paradigm to obtain the first-hand official questionnaire data,the study uses Smart PLS software to analyze the questionnaire data,and verify the theoretical model and hypothesis.The study finds that: First,unlike normal public policy,the decision-making mechanism of the development planning includes not only the decision-making methods(democratization,scientization,and legalization),but also the adjustment methods(cohesion coordination and timely regulation adjustment).Second,compared with the decision-making methods(democratization,scientiztion,and legalization),the adjustment methods(cohesion coordination and timely regulation adjustment)are more important for the planning implementation performance.Third,there are significant differences in the mechanisms of democratization,scientization,legalization,cohesive coordination,and timely regulation mechanisms.Among them,democratization only has a positive and significant impact on decision-making consensus rather than text quality.Scientization and legalization only have a positive and significant impact on text quality,not on decision-making consensus.Coordination and timely adjustment have a positive and significant impact on decision-making consensus and text quality.Fourth,decision-making consensus and text quality are important mediators of development planning decision-making mechanisms that affect implementation performance.The research methods and conclusions have better academic and practical significance.From the perspective of academic significance,it is mainly to expand the new ideas of Chinese development planning researches;and to develop and enrich the Chinese theoretical system of development planning.Firstly,it is the first time for this study to research the development planning decision-making mechanism from the perspective of planning implementation performance,which is beneficial to expand the new thinking of development planning research in China.Secondly,it is the first time for this study to attempt to enrich the development planning decision-making mechanism research and explore its internal laws with quantitative research methods.Specifically,it has the following significance: the first one is to enrich the research methods of the development planning decision-making mechanism.The second one is to clarify the current multiple statements about "plausible" but difficult to make decisions.The third one is beneficial to enrich the basic theoretical research,applied basic research and specific problem research of development planning decision-making mechanism.Thirdly,it is the first time for this study to distinguish the difference between beneficial to the interest oriented public policy and knowledge-based public policy,which is conducive to refine the field of public policy research and draw more accurate conclusions.From the practical point of view,the study provides a theoretical basis for adhering to and improving the decision-making mechanism of Chinese development planning.Firstly,the conclusions have strengthened the decision-making advantage and the confidence of Chinese development planning.It is found that democratization,scientization,legalization,cohesion and coordination,and timely regulation adjustment have significant impact on the performance of planning implementation through decision consensus and text quality in various degree.This explains why it spends such a huge cost of human and financial resources to involve the decision-making level,the preparation level and the consultation level and other groups in the decision-making process of Chinese development planning.Why it issues the relevant opinions in succession,and even drafts the development planning law to regulate the preparation procedures,as well as adds the two preparation procedures of "connection and coordination between plans" and "mid-term evaluation and adjustment".Secondly,these conclusions provide an important basis to improve the decision-making mechanism of Chinese development planning.It is found that in the process of soliciting opinions,due to many subjects,short time,single form and other factors,each subject just puts forward superficial opinions or development demands,therefore the democratization mechanism only has a positive and significant impact on decision consensus rather than text quality.Because the decision-makers who have in-depth argumentation on the core elements such as development ideas,development orientation and core indicators mainly gather in the leaders of the party and government,the leaders in charge of the development and Reform Commission(bureau)and the core members of the development and Reform Commission(bureau).Meanwhile,the kind of decision-maker features as small in scale and high in rank,and mainly represents the overall interests rather than departmental(local)interests and demands.Therefore,the scientific mechanism generally has a positive and significant impact on the text quality,not on the decision consensus.The legalized mechanism has a significant positive impact on the text quality rather than the decision consensus in that it cannot guarantee the coverage,the willingness to participate and the appeal absorption of each department(local)participating in the consultation in each decision-making process.And this is conducive to making targeted policy recommendations.The subsequent efforts to deepen the research can be conducted in the following directions.Firstly,it can take the factors such as organizational features,personality characteristics into account,and at the same time,continue to explore mediation variables except decision consensus and text quality,which is to enrich the theoretical model;Secondly,conduct more case studies,analyzing its intrinsic decision-making mechanism in depth,to enrich the theoretical model through multiple case comparisons.Thirdly,we can go on to do deepen research,discuss with more officials and scholars who have rich experience in planning and decision-making,gradually revise and improve the empirical research design.Fourthly,with the deepening of the research and the broadening of contacts,it is time for us to seize the opportunities to carry out researches for more regions,higher-level and wider population,strive to improve the scientific nature of research,and ensure the reliability and robustness of research conclusions.