Research On Current Situation Of Public Participation In Legislative Process Of Our Nation

China has ushered in an era of public participation. It has become an inevitable trend for the range of public participation to extend from the implementation of laws (grassroots governance) to origination of laws (legislation). At the theoretical level, Sovereignty of People Theory and Participatory Democracy and Deliberative Democracy Theory support public participation. At the practical level, public participation is urgently demanded to compensate for the lack of legitimacy in representative democracy. The value of public participation is to enhance the legitimacy of legislation and to promote the implementation of laws. In addition, the increasing public need for participation which is influenced by the rising of public administration has also led to rapid development of public participation in the legislation.In current situation of public participation in legislative process of our nation, we have accomplished great achievements, but also have many weaknesses. Ways written in law on how public participate in the legislative process are soliciting opinion on draft law, seminars, symposia, hearing, etc. Ways not written in law are legal lobbying, litigation, issuing an open letter, petitioning, advocating, etc. The reason for this current situation lies in that the limited channels do not meet the need for public participation, thus public have to create ways not written in law to affect the legislative process and results. Compared to the more developed system and practice of foreign public participation legislative process, public participation in our nation is still in the initial stage, which is characterized by external-force-driven, media-driven, and up-down co-forcing. The causes for these characteristics are underdevelopment of the participation system, misunderstanding of participation, lack of sense of participation, as well as the fact that the participation is not written in legislation as a necessary procedure. All these above result in non effectiveness in participation. To strengthen the effectiveness, three aspects need to be improved:return of power, relationship between public participation democracy and representative democracy, and growth of civil society. It is recommended to understand premises, key points, and ways to improve the effectiveness in participation so as to promote the shift from orderly to effective public participation in legislation.