Research On The Mechanism Of Deliberative Democracy In The Formulation Of Major People’s Livelihood Policy In China

For the first time,the report of the 18th CPC National Party Congress proposed to improve the socialist consultative and democratic system,and to promote the broad,multi-tiered and institutionalized development of deliberative democracy.The formulation of major policies on people’s livelihood involves the vital interests of citizens,who are most willing to participate in deliberation.It focuses on the deliberation before and during decision-making.It concerns the legitimate foundation of the Party,decision-making risks,the integration of core values,social stability,etc.,and can best reflect the merits and demerits of the socialist consultation system.The construction of deliberative democracy and institutionalization in the formulation of major people’s livelihood policies is the primary task of deepening the construction of China’s deliberative democratic system,which is of far-reaching significance.This study aims at the dilemma of citizen participation in the deliberation in major people’s livelihood policy-making in China,such as low value orientation fit,low change of negotiation preference,low identification of institutionalized negotiation channels,low degree of social organization deliberation,low soundness of negotiation procedures,low completeness of negotiation methods and low participation rate in actual deliberation.Besides,the emphasis on economic development efficiency along with social stability,deep-rooted management concepts,and lack of civic competence have caused deep resistance to citizen participation in deliberations.The purpose of this study is to construct a long-term mechanism for citizens to participate in deliberations in the formulation of China’s major people’s livelihood policies.The deliberative democracy in this paper is different from the negotiation paradigm of collective decision-making between citizens and the government,which is under the structure of separation of powers.It refers to the deliberative democracy such as exchange,discussion,debate and deliberation under the special political system of China.In this paper,the institutionalization of deliberative democracy has two main meanings:one is to institutionalize,standardize and procedural construction of“deliberative democracy”and to establish and improve the operational mechanism of deliberative democracy;the other is to embed the mechanism of deliberative democracy into all stages of major livelihood policy making,so as to make deliberative democracy an organic composition of the major livelihood policy making.Of course,due to the complexity,arduousness and long-term characteristics of the deliberative democracy institutionalization in the formulation of major livelihood policies in China,the institutionalization construction will present a dynamic and stable process.Major livelihood policy-making has four stages of public policy-making:issues construction,program demonstration,leadership decision-making and legalization of major livelihood policy-making.The four stages of deliberative democracy correspond to:“public consultation with ordinary citizens as the main body les by Party building in the stage of policy topic construction”,“citizen participation consultation with elite citizens as the main body led by Party building in the stage of policy scheme demonstration”,“citizen participation in hearing consultation in the stage of leading decision-making”and“consultation among deputies to the National People’s Congress in the stage of policy legalization”.The four stages of deliberative democracy mainly reflect the participation of citizens in consultation.In order to focus on the theme,the construction of deliberative democracy in China’s major livelihood policy-making is mainly discussed from the perspective of“deliberative democracy”in which citizens participate in policy-making and“citizen participation in consultation”.Therefore,the main titles of the full text basically presents the key words of“citizen participation in consultation in major livelihood policy-making”.The ideas and methods of this study are to fully follow the four stages of issues construction,program demonstration,leadership decision-making and legalization of major livelihood policy-making,and closely follow the four stages of citizen participation in consultation themes.First,guided by the theoretical study of citizen participation in consultation in the formulation of major livelihood policies in China,the study adopts normative research and starts from the conceptual framework of deliberative democracy in major livelihood policy-making.The paper focuses on its three generative logic:historical logic,theoretical logic and practical logic,as well as other construction and modes together with their operating mechanisms such as the elements,principles,operating conditions and operation mechanism of citizen participation in deliberation,etc.in major livelihood policy-making.Then the paper takes the current situation of citizen participation in deliberation in the formulation of China’s major people’s livelihood policies as the starting point to find out the new scene and the main existing problems of deliberation democracy construction in the field of major people’s livelihood policy-making since the 18^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.Using quantitative empirical research,we tentatively constructed an index system of citizen participation in negotiation effectiveness analysis of major people’s livelihood policy formulation,such as“eagerness degree of negotiation participation,value orientation fit degree,negotiation process authenticity degree,satisfaction of negotiation results and negotiation subject variable index”.By means of questionnaire surveys,in-depth interviews and structured interviews,citizens of different geographical and structural levels are investigated in terms of deliberation situation.A total of 1000 questionnaires were distributed.733questionnaires were actually collected,and 649 valid questionnaires were collected.Finally,based on empirical analysis,this paper tries to build a long-term mechanism of citizen participation in consultation in major livelihood policy-making,and highlights the discussion of public consultation mode in major livelihood policy-making.This study tentatively carried out some innovations.First,new research fields are proposed.The study of deliberative democracy in the formulation of major people’s livelihood policies is a new field in the study of perfecting the socialist deliberative democracy system,and a new field in the study of deliberative democracy.Conversely,deliberative democracy is also a new and effective way to solve the problems in the formulation of major livelihood policies.Second,some new research methods are adopted.If quantitative empirical methods are used to discuss the current situation of deliberative democracy construction in the formulation of major livelihood policies,there will be many empirical studies of case-based deliberative democracy in China.However,there are few quantitative empirical methods.Third,new contents are discussed.For example,in the formulation of major livelihood policies,the generation logic,construction,mode and operation mechanism of deliberative democratic institutionalization are discussed.Fourth,the innovation of theory and countermeasures is included.We try to construct a conceptual framework of major people’s livelihood policies,an analytical framework of deliberative democracy in major livelihood policy-making,a public deliberation model for the formulation of major livelihood policies and its long-term mechanism.To highlight the long-term mechanism,this study creates a three-dimensional constitution mechanism,a stage-difference functional mechanism,as well as an operational mechanism led by Party building.It also creates a driving mechanism to breaks the deep resistance of citizens’participation in deliberation.Fifth,we put forward some new ideas.This study believes that the major people’s livelihood policy is an important tool for the Party and the government to provide public services and social management.The public opinion of decision-making will be related to the welfare of the people,social stability and the legitimacy of the government.The essence of deliberative democracy is deliberation and consensus,and the interests of the subject of deliberation are motive power,so deliberative democracy must be rooted in a certain political culture.At present,ordinary citizens in China seem not to be involved in protests and appeals until their interests are violated during the implementation of people’s livelihood policies.The main cause of the problem is insufficient participation of the public in policy-making.The masses do not provide sufficient opinions and they even don’t know the policies well.The construction of deliberative democracy and institutionalization in the formulation of China’s people’s livelihood policies is the primary task of perfecting the socialist deliberative democracy.It must be carried out under the overall leadership of the Communist Party of China.