A Theoretical And Empirical Study Of Public Policy Hearing

Hearing originated from Britain and America, and it spread from the judicial field to the legislative and administrative field. Hearing is widely used in the Western countries, and it is an important way for the public to participate in political life. Hearing was introduced in China in 1990's, and it is used widely in policy makings. Public policy hearing provides a way for the public to participate in policy-making, expands the public's participation in politics, and provides a way for policy makers to Learn public opinion, playing the role of policy advice.It is not a long time since public policy hearing was used in China. Studies about public policy hearing were seldom, and studies in theory were not systematic. Based on the illumination of the development of public policy hearing, the author systematically expounds the general theory of public policy hearing. But in reality, public policy hearings have not been widely recognized by the public, who did not think highly of them. There are still problems in public policy hearing. This paper studies the problems of the cases of public policy hearings and provides the ways to perfect public policy hearing in the last part of it. This paper consists of four parts:The first part mainly discusses the evolution of public policy hearing and the two stages of the development of public policy hearing in China.The author classifies the development of hearing system into germination period, establishing period, and expanding period. The germination period was characterized by establishment of public policy hearing principle. The establishing period was from 1946 to 1970s', and hearing system was established and matured in United States. Expanding period is from 1970s'to today, and hearing system is recognized and introduced by other countries.The period, from 1990 to May 1, 1998, was the initial exploratory phase of public policy hearing. At this stage, public policy hearings showed "local first" characteristics. Local governments carried out exploration activities on their own. There was not a unified legal norm to regulate the policy hearings, and public policy hearings also focused on the Price fields. The time from the Price Law of the People's Republic of China's taking effects until today is the stage of gradual Specification and development of public policy hearing. At this stage, many policy fields have introduced the hearing, and there are specialized legal texts to regulate hearing procedures and hearing matters. At the same time hearing has been expanded to other fields.The second part illustrates the general theories of public policy hearing. In recent years, public policy hearings also generally appear in domestic Medias, however, there was seldom elaboration of general theories of public policy hearing. Based on the predecessors'thinking, the author puts forward the concept of public policy hearing. The theoretical basis of the public hearing is"Natural Justice Principle","Due Process of Law"principle, Democratic Theory and the"Limited Rationality"theory. Public policy hearing has characteristics such as phased, selective and openness. According to different criteria public policy hearing is divided into different types. The personnel consist of hearing host, hearing people, hearing representatives, observers and record keeping personnel. The trigger mechanism of public policy hearing is divided into active starting and passive starting. The process of public policy hearing is divided into preparation stage, convening stage and ending stage. The role of public policy hearing is, to advance scientificalness of policy-making, to promote democratization of policy-making, to enhance legitimacy and to perfect public policy. There are two broaches on effectiveness of public policy hearing.The third part investigates the reality of public policy hearing and analyzes the problems of public policy hearing by case studies. The empirical research was done on trigger mechanism of public policy hearing, the application deadline for the public, personnel composition, mode of representatives'generation, hearing transparency and the effectiveness of public policy hearing. Although the public had shown great enthusiasm for taking part in public policy hearings, and hearings had got higher attendance rates, at the same time, there are some problems of public policy hearing such as, lacking variety in public policy hearing starting system, inappropriate composition of hearing representatives, low transparency and efficiency etc.The fourth part puts forward the approaches to perfect public policy hearing. Firstly, we should perfect related systems of public policy hearing. Secondly, it should improve the interest expression ability. Thirdly, policymakers should correct the hearing motives. Fourthly, the role of supervision by public opinion of media should be played.