Research On Local People’s Congress’ Promotion Of Public Participation In Public Policy Making

Public participation is an effective form of democracy that has been developed in western countries since the 1960s. In recent years, with the implementation of our country’s reform and opening up and the further development of our country’s political civilization, public participation has been introduced to the public administration of our country. A growing number of interest groups and members of the society are desperate to have their will reflected in the process of public policy making, in order to realize their own interests; meanwhile, the public’s consciousness of rights has been awakened and strengthened, which makes the public own the awareness and ability to participate in public policy making; thus, it has become inevitable for the public to participate in public policy making. However, public participation in local public policy making is still in the stage of implementation efforts in China, both the hierarchy and the enthusiasm of public participation in public policy making are relatively low; problems such as nonstandard and unordered public participation activities are comparatively prominent. Within the framework of the system of people’s congress, local people’s congresses of various levels, as local authorities and channels for the expression of public opinion, has its own advantages in promoting public participation in public policy making. This paper, from the perspective of local people’s congress and by combining the working practice of local people’s congress, attempts to seek effective paths to promote public participation in public policy making, with an aim to guarantee the scientificity, democracy, legality, rationality, effectiveness and enforceability of local public policy making.Therefore, this paper does research on public participation in local public policy making through applying the theories of public participation, public policy, political democracy, administrative democracy and so forth, and through combining the theories of the expression of public opinion under the system of people’s congress. In addition, this paper, starting from the relationship among people’s congresses, the government and the public, clarifies the important position and role of local people’s congress’promotion of public participation in public policy making. Besides, by analyzing the problems existing in the current public participation in public policy making, and the practical case of Shenzhen City, this paper sums up the experience and refines the achievements; meanwhile, this paper compares the system and the practice of Shenzhen City and those of the two-tier parliament of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on promoting public participation in public policy making; finally, from the perspective of the people’s congress, this paper puts forward some countermeasures and advice to perfect public participation in public policy making.