The Effectiveness And Limitation Of Deliberative Democracy At The Grass-roots Level

In1980s, there was a surge of research into Deliberative democracy Theory as a response to the deficiency of liberal democracy and the challenge of pluralistic society.The Deliberative democracy Theory is based on pubic consultation. In the political process, all citizens, liberal and equal in rights, could rationally propose relative reasons to persuade others or change their own opinion and reach an agreement based on public interests. Through the consultation, the political legitimacy is imparted.The Deliberative democracy Theory in west evolves into many practical forms including Citizens Conference, Deliberative Polls, Civil Jury, mass-scale public discourse and so on, which represents the core spirit of the theory itself. Nowadays, not only western countries but also many Asia countries including China are trying to seek a variety of effective forms of this new democracy.Once introduced to China, Deliberative democracy gained considerable attention. Chinese scholars found that some of the China traditions and social resources are consistent with the requirements of Deliberative democracy and based on which they develop some native practical form of consultation theory such as Rural Forum, City Council, and Internet forum, etc. These new forms provide abundant resources for the research on the Deliberative democracy in China.With the rapid economic and social development of Hangzhou since China’s reform and opening, the city has also been suffering the diversification of interests and the conflicts between different groups. In order to maintain social order and reinforce the governance efficiency, The Hangzhou government insists on carrying out system innovations combined with the actual circumstances and propose a new strategy form that is to promote the citizens’livelihood through Deliberative democracy. They establish a studio called "Hubinqingyu" and erect a system of community forum consisting of four different parts called "sihui" system. They are new exploration of the Deliberative democracy practice in basic level. This thesis focuses on the description of "Hubinqingyu" studio and "Sihui" system. Relying on the analysis about the process and operation of the Deliberative democracy at the grass-roots level, the writer has dissected the value and limitation of the Deliberative democracy scientificalness. The thesis holds that the value of Chinese grassroots consultation it can help us to achieve full democracy, to balance the interests of different groups, to promote the rationality and scientificalness of government decision-making and to foster the civil rights of citizens. Chinese Deliberative democracy at the grass-roots level has problems existing in various aspects, as lack of participation representative participants, system deficiency, incommensurate capability of participants and so on. As to promote Chinese Deliberative democracy at the grass-roots level, the consultative system should be improved and arranged while the new information technology should be made good use of and consultative culture should be fostered so that we can create a new practical form of Deliberative democracy.