Research On Citizen Participation In Public Utility Products’ Rate Setting

Urban public utility is a typical natural monopoly industry,which has certain monopoly,externality,public welfare and profitability.At the same time,public utility products are quasi-public products,closely related to people’s daily life and related to the national economy and people’s livelihood.As consumers of public utility products,citizens have consumer sovereignty.Citizen participation in the pricing process of public utility products is an important manifestation of democracy.Therefore,citizen participation in the pricing mechanism of public utility products is of great significance.Based on the literature review of the citizen participation in the pricing process of public utility products,it discusses the meaning of public utility and the technical and economic characteristics of public utility products,the theory of regulating economic public interest,the theory of price control and the theories of citizen participation.Based on the analysis of the status quo,content and influencing factors of citizen participation in the pricing process of public utility products in my country,the factors of asymmetry of information,legal protection factors of hearing representatives,legal effects of hearing results,factors of the level of assistance of the hearing host,and price hearings are put forward.There are five constraints such as cost-benefit asymmetry.Through the case analysis of electricity price hearings in Japan and South Korea,the main experience of citizens’ participation in public utility product pricing hearings was summarized:In the case of Korean progressive electricity price increases,the time for the residents’opinions collection and publicity in the hearings was insufficient,which reduced The effectiveness of citizen participation,and there are restrictions on the time,space and understanding of professional content for citizens of different ages who intend to participate.Although the process of submitting opinions and reflecting the opinions and decision-making notifications is relatively complete,it is difficult to implement the system.In the case of Kyushu Electric Power in Japan,it is difficult for citizens as consumers to understand the generation mechanism of electricity prices based on the total cost method,and it is difficult to understand the content of price increase applications from published materials,and it is difficult to make personal judgments on the validity of applications.However,at the hearing,the moderator’s assistance effect was more obvious,which promoted the participation of consumer representatives.Some specific ways to improve citizen participation were proposed:fixing system guarantees,providing hearing services,amending the judicial guarantee and relief system,improving the level of host meeting assistance,and activating the electronic participation system.