Multi-Source Decision-Multiple Governance: Study On The Policy Process Of Prevention And Control For Animal Epidemics

In recent years,with the rapid development of animal husbandry in China,the circulation of livestock products has been accelerated.Whereas,the preventing and controlling of animal epidemics crisis has become increasingly complex.Governments at all levels have fallen into a policy dilemma.What governments face is the “race” between the evolution of public crisis in animal epidemics and the adjustment of relevant policies.How to effectively solve the policy problems in the prevention and control of animal epidemic,quicken the reaction of the government,and enhance the effectiveness of prevention policies,not only relates to the safety of livestock industry,public health and animal-derived products,but also directly associates with social harmony and stability,which is the core issue in the governance of public crisis in animal epidemics.This article emphasizes on the policy process of prevention and control for animal epidemics.Firstly,a policy process model of "Multi-Source Decision-Multiple Governance" is constructed by using multi-source flow theory and evolutionary game theory.The model focuses on explaining the generative mechanism of controlling policies in epidemic outbreak in terms of the definition of policy issues,policy formulation,policy implementation,and policy results.Then,it analyzes the spatial-temporal features of the bird flu outbreak in China and the evolutionary characteristics of the epidemic public crisis,then utilizes the progressive decision theory to explain the evolution of the prevention and control policy.On this basis,the “Closed-markets policy” and “Pre-treatment policy” in Zhejiang Province are selected as the key cases.With the help of the policy process model of "Multi-Source Decision-Multiple Governance",the policy development process and policy implementation process are thoroughly analyzed.The results of the study indicate that the epidemic public crisis events are the key factors that lead to the definition of prevention and control policy issues.Besides,there is a sequence of multi-source flows in the development of prevention and control policies.What should be noticed is multiple resistances are encountered in the implementation of prevention and control policies,different stakeholders also influence the results.Finally,based on the research results,this paper puts forward four optimized paths for the prevention and control of public animal crisis: the first one is the strengthening of scientific researches on epidemic diseases,which followed by is the improvement of recognition ability in policy problems.In addition,the improvement of social participation mechanisms,the optimization of prevention and control policy making processes and the creation of a benign interactive environment.Furthermore,helping the public reach a consensus on policies,increasing government input and steadily improving the effectiveness of prevention and control policies.