A Case Study On The Implementation Process Of Rural Minimum Living Security Policy

Chinese society is now in the critical period of dramatic shift, as all kinds of social problems emerging in endlessly, the support of social policy is in urgent needs. Policy implementation is the important content of policy research and the core link of policy practice, which determines the success of the policy. In Chinese society, how’s social policy implement? The process is the simple administrative execution or complicated social implementation? During the implementation process of the policy, which factors play the essential role? How to make the policy into real effect and benefit the people? These problems always puzzle the party and the government, meanwhile; attract much attention of the researchers.In the view of above, this thesis takes the implementation process of rural minimum living security policy as research object, chooses the implementation of minimal assurance policy in D village as an individual case, using the new institutionalism in sociology for theoretical analysis, seeks to reveal the real process of social policy implementation and points out the key factors influencing the policy implementation. This contains the vital practical and theoretical significance for the current Chinese social policy implementation research. Through the research of hierarchical files and depth interview data of D village minimum living security policy, this thesis finds out:the implementation process of D village minimum living security policy can be divided into the top-down "execution" and the bottom-up "accommodation", the two types have dual systems and impact on each other. Actually, the "execution" process is the formal process of minimum living security policy, during which the role of formal system reinforces and the political power occupies the central position. And the "accommodation" process is the informal process of minimum living security policy, during which the influence of informal system decreases and social cognitive elements are of great significance. This thesis mainly divides into the following six captors:Chapter1, Introduction. Firstly, it introduces the raise of the research problem, as well as the practical and theoretical significance of this research; secondly, it presents the qualitative case study method that this thesis mainly uses, as well as the document literature which come from the policy files and depth interview; thirdly, it points out the research framework and comprehensive scheme; finally, it proposes the innovation of this thesis.Chapter2, Literature Review. This captor introduces the relevant researches on social policy in the first place, and summarize the developing venation of social policy research in both domestic and overseas; secondly, during the summary of the relevant domestic and foreign researches on policy implementation, it introduces three modes of policy implementation and the relevant factors that influencing the policy implementation; finally, on the basis of briefly introduction of the new institutionalism in economy and politics, it focus on the review of the theoretical venation of the new institutionalism in sociology, and details the ideological contents of the background-bounded rationality and collectivism new institutionalism in sociology.Chapter3, Implementation Process of D village Minimum Living Security Policy. This captor makes a briefly introduction of D village and its executive condition of minimum living security policy. And then, it divides the implementation process of D village minimum living security policy into two aspects--top-down "execution" and bottom-up "accommodation". During the top-down "execution", it introduces the hierarchical transmission process and the specific implementation process of D village minimum living security policy; and it presents the two manifestations of accommodation during practice--"invisible assurance" and "relation assurance".Chapter4, Analysis of Formal Process of D village Minimum Living Security Policy Execution. This chapter divides the formal process of D village minimum living security policy execution into three phases:exploratory period, formalizing period and "substantial performance" period. During the exploratory period(2004-2006), the rural minimum living security policy is still belonging to a kind of "pre-formal institution"; as the continuously specification of the central policies and the formalizing deduce of the provincial policies, the policy execution presents the modal performance during formalizing period(2007-2012); and during "substantial performance" period(2013-), the normal institution begins to play a practical role, except for the continuously improvement of the municipal policies, the more pivotal reason is the great power of political power.Chapter5, Analysis of Informal Process of D village Minimum Living Security Policy Implementation. Corresponding to the formal process, the informal process of D village minimum living security policy implementation is also divided into three phases:institutionalization period, stabilization period and residual period. During institutionalization period,(2004-2006), the accommodation phenomenon (eg."relation assurance", etc.) are very common, according to this, this section explains the source of the informal institution institutionalization from the aspects of rational choice(cause), institution structure(condition) and social cognition(basis); though the informal institution weakens to a certain extent, it still in the dominant position owing to its stable property during stabilization period(2007-2012); and during residual period(2013-), though the informal institution is no longer hold the dominant position, it still has residuals manifesting as modal democratic appraisal institution, the sources which derive from the formal institution’s loopholes empowering the informal institution on the one hand, as well as the "accuracy" of subjective judgment on the other hand.Chapter6, Conclusion and Suggestion. Firstly, this captor presents the main discoveries:the implementation process of D village minimum living security policy is mainly divided into formal process and informal process. During the formal institution’s formalizing process, the influence of formal institution constantly reinforces, and finally occupies the dominant position driven by the strong propel of the political power; in the meantime, the informal institution constantly weakens, and takes the subordinate position gradually. Secondly, this thesis seeks to comprehensive the theoretical viewpoints of Economy, Politics and Sociology of new institutionalism on the basis of Scott’s three basic institutional elements, so as to find out the new orientation of institutional theory. Thirdly, aiming at the policy implementation loopholes that this thesis proposed, the author put forward two suggestions. Finally, this chapter presents the problems that need to be further discussed, and points out the shortcomings of this thesis lie in lacking of scientific empirical analysis and the representative problem of case study.