About The Interpretation Of The "five-year Plan" Of The Policy Process

In this thesis the perspective of political science is applied to explore the history of China's 5-year plans, in terms of policy-making process. The purpose of this research is to examine the history of China's 5-year plans by conducting a documental and comparative analysis of the planning processes and execution results of the first, sixth, and tenth 5-year plans. Two major dimensions, i.e., policy-making and policy-implementing, are focused. It is argued that the nature of"5-year plan"is a systematic consideration of a serious of policies, which occupies the central place in the whole policy systems about planning the national development. The results of the research show that although the 5-year plans in different times are made in different backgrounds and carry various contents, they have certain consistencies. It is also found that in designing the 5-year plans, the leaders at central government level have critical influences. Furthermore, it seems true that the policy-making process and the decision system of the 5-year plans are becoming more and more standardized, systematic and regulated by procedures. These results indicate that the way of decision making tends to be changed with more democracy and scientific elements. While planning national economy and social development through the 5-year plans, the CCP's leadership has plays a substantial role. The author asserts that such kind of organizational framework is necessary and inevitable on one hand. On the other hand, it also causes some problems in China's power relationship, including that between party and government in terms of the horizontal structure of power. The course of execution of the ten 5-year plans is full of changes in various dimensions of China's society, including changes from traditional to modern, from agricultural to industrial, and from planned economy to market economy. From the perspective of policy-making and policy-implementing, the history of 5-year plan shows the development and changes of the government's function, economic system and economical-development. Compared with the earliest few 5-year plans, the latest few 5-year plans have not only changed their value orientations, but are also diversified in their functions.