Study On Public Participation In Legislation

This dissertation makes probe into public participation in legislation, which is a topic of abundant practice and exhaustless theories.It is consisted by the foreword, main text and conclusion. The foreword gives a brief description about both the nature of legislation from multi-folds viewpoints and issues that need to discuss and solve regarding public participation in legislation in China. The conclusion stresses importance of public participation in legislation, making a prospect of it and the author's expectation.The main text has three chapters. The first chapter analyzes basic theories about public participation in legislation, including its definition, motives, behavioral orientation and the necessity of public participation. The second chapter studies the practice and cases of public participation in Chinese legislation nowadays. It firstly discusses the factors leading to the development of public participation in Chinese legislation and the methods used for public participation; then it analyzes the present situation and causes of public participation in Chinese legislation; finally it analyzes two cases, which are hearings held by the People's Congress of Guangdong Province and the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress. In analysis, it is examined what effects public participation in legislation can have. The width and extent of public participation are two standards to evaluate legislative participation. In practice, it is more important to combine these two standards to bring about a better result than to make a choice between them. In the third chapter, countermeasures and methods are suggested to improve public participation in legislation. Since what should be solved in public participation in legislation is the combination of the width and extent of public participation. Hence the following measures can be taken for solutions, including strengthening citizen's consciousness of legislative participation, improvement of techniques of participation, perfection of the People's Congress system, establishment of effective interest expression mechanism and expansion of interest expression channels.This dissertation is based on study on such a legal theoretical and practical issue as public participation in legislation from the viewpoints of political science, sociology and public choice, etc, which are out of the scope of law. Guided by theories and case analysis, it sets forth some counter measures and suggestions to this issue.