The Study On Predicaments Of Citizens’ Participation In Public Policies Formulation

The New institution alism believes that systems provide a g eneral framewo rk fo r a variety of continuous pu blic policy decisi on-mak ing.Thi s article is based o n study ab out the relationship b etween the system an d policy, trying to explain the citizen participation predicaments during public policy decision-making process from t he p erspective of institutional arrangements. Institu tio nal arrangements provide a stage for citizen’s participation in the formulation of public policy. Institu tional arrangements are formal and i nformal rules directing individual or co llecti ve actions. In our co untry, the institut ional arrangements hav e two aspects. First one is s econdary inst itu tional arrangements. Mainl y i nclude s ystem n etwork fai lure, t he failure of organizations network, imbalancesbetween i nter est group s as wel l as the nature of politi cs and power, the lack o f p ublic participation capacity and bu reaucratic s elf-interes ts. The other o ne is o riginal institutional arrangements, the fundamen tal reasons for t he predicamen t s o f civic participation. Th ey are main ly deci ded by drawb acks o f the pressurized s ystem, under-developmen t o f civil society an d path-dependence. Original institut ional arrangements has an ability of s ystem shapi ng. How t o s olve thi s dil emma in citizen participation i n policy formul ation? The key is to chan ge tradi tional native institut ional arrangements and reconstructing sys t em s tructure and environment of our citizens’ participation i n p olicy formulation.