Research On Mechanism For Public Participation In Public Projects For Local Government

Public participation has increasingly become a much-discussed subject in modern societies,with more and more public affairs requiring public participation to varying extents. It hasnow gradually become a crucial criterion against which government performance ismeasured. In an ‘Era of decision-making’ as such, the presence or absence of publicparticipation in public decision-making process is directly related to the quality anddemocracy of such process, making public participation an emerging symbol of‘democratization’ of public life. Over recent years, public participation in the form ofhearing, workshop, and public debate on legislative drafts has played a significant role inChina’s legislation and public decision-making, and has undergone remarkable progress interms of quantity, quality, extensiveness, and intensity. An important part of publicdecision-making, decision-making on public project construction not only shapes the futureof the city and communities, but also directly influences people’s quality of life. Therefore,the extensity and intensity of public participation are indisputably important. The publicbeing the main stakeholders during the construction of a public project as well as theimmediate beneficiaries of this project, how to effectively engage in the construction ofpublic projects and any related decision-making, and therefore enhance the quality andreasonableness of such decision-making is a subject worth contemplating.At present, many problems exist in public participation in our public projects, such as poorpolitical groundwork, a flawed legal system and feedback mechanism, inadequate publicawareness, and limited avenues of participation, all of which will affect the publicperception of the government. In addition, lack of public participation has rendered somedecision-making incompliant with the principle of “reasonable, quality decision-making”.Causes of these issues are multifaceted, including political barriers, inadequate disclosure onthe government’s part, poor legal support, factors related to public participants themselves.To tackle the root of the real problems arising from public participation in public projects,help the government and related departments make quality, democratic decisions in publicprojects, is inarguably required by the modernization and healthy, sustainable developmentof our socialist nation, making it essential to adopt a comprehensive and systemic approachto this issue. Efforts should be made to diversify public participants in public projects,improve public participation schemes, promote innovation in developing platforms forpublic participation, and enhancing supporting mechanisms to ensure public participation.