A Study On The Goal And Policy Choice Of Collective Property Rights Reform From The Perspective Of Policy Learning

Policy learning is the basis for institutional innovation,which not only reduces the cost of trial and error for local governments,but is also an important path to enhance local governments’ governance capacity and modernise their governance systems.Reform of the collective property rights system is an important foundation for realising the rural revitalisation strategy and a dynamic adaptation of the relationship between the state and society.The development of collective property rights system reform is closely related to policy studies.In 2015,the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced the first batch of pilot units for collective property rights system reform,and the fifth batch of collective property rights system reform in 2022 will cover the country’s agriculture-related counties and districts,however,property rights reform involves a complex historical background and a large number of relevant subjects,and local governments need to refine and adjust their reform policies according to the actual situation.Existing research on collective property rights system reform has mostly focused on the effects on the effectiveness,dilemmas and governance of villages,with insufficient macro perspectives,and less research on collective property rights system reform from the perspective of policy learning.In order to study the policy learning mechanism behind the reform of collective property rights system,this paper selected a sample of 163 property rights reform policy texts distributed in different batches,combined with the commons theory,coded the policy texts,and used the visualization function of NVivo 12 qualitative software to conduct thematic analysis.The study is divided into three main parts: 1.Policy content of the reform.By coding the policy texts,the study conducted a textual analysis of the policy content of the reform of the collective property rights system;2.The changing pattern of policy objectives.Through descriptive statistics of thematic nodes,the study unfolds from three aspects: public life,common governance and common prosperity;3.Policy learning mechanisms of reform.Through textual and thematic analysis of collective property rights system reform policies,the study focuses on three aspects of policy learning paths,goal logic and influencing factors of collective property rights system reform.Through the analysis of 163 texts of collective property rights system reform policies,the study finds that,firstly,the content of the reform policies.On the one hand,the reform defines collective membership through democratic consultation;creates a platform through the establishment of collective economic organisations and carries out corresponding democratic supervision mechanisms,thereby developing and growing the collective economy and achieving common prosperity.On the other hand,the policy of reforming the collective property rights system is a process of change.After summarising the experience of the last batch of reform pilots and taking into account the actual situation of the villages,the study found that the different elements of the reform demonstrated different trends,gradually constructing rural communalities,guaranteeing the effectiveness of the system and improving the mobility of products.Secondly,the policy objectives and their changing patterns.This paper summarises the policy objectives of the reform as public life,common governance and common prosperity,and concludes that communalisation is the pattern of change of the policy objectives,which is mainly manifested in the gradual collectivisation,consultation and coordination of public life.Shared governance tends to be institutionalised,organised,mobilised and democratised.The trend of common prosperity is towards strong union and tight integration,gradually increasing openness and security.Thirdly,policy learning mechanisms.It mainly includes policy learning paths,target logic and influencing factors.Firstly,there are three policy learning paths;the first and second batches are government-learning reform experiments,the third and fourth batches are social learning-based reform transformations;and the fifth batch is a market-embedded policy learning path.Although the learning paths of different batches of policies differed,these three learning paths also intertwined and co-existed in each batch of collective property rights system reform,which led to different stages of reform learning effects respectively.Secondly,the policy learning objectives of the reform are understood from three levels:value-power-interest.In terms of value,the reform of the rural collective property rights system shifted from individual to collective and from farmers to members.In terms of power interaction,the reform of property rights will inevitably reconfigure the power of various subjects and touch some deep-seated interests,which requires pluralistic participation and consultation among various subjects in the reform process.From the point of view of benefit sharing,achieving common prosperity is the core of the reform of collective property rights system.Not only should the collective economy be developed and expanded,but also the proceeds of the collective economy should be reasonably distributed,while the local government should improve its governance ability and the village collective should improve its ability to supply public goods,so as to enhance the happiness of villagers’ life and achieve common prosperity.Finally,the influencing factors of policy learning are explored at the conceptual-structural-action level.Conceptually,conceptual awareness is the initial impression of local policy participants based on policy goals,and becomes the most fundamental factor influencing policy learning.Through the analysis of the policy texts on collective property rights system reform,the study finds that perceptions influence policy learning mainly in the areas of legal perceptions,collective perceptions,identity perceptions,negotiation perceptions and property rights perceptions.Structurally,local governments learn from excellent policy experiences and refine their policy objectives and action plans by assimilating conceptual knowledge of policies,building systems,setting up organisations,publicising and mobilising and other forms of practice to adapt to the external environment and local reality.Different batches of collective property rights system reform policy texts influence the local policy learning process in terms of institutional,organisational and administrative structures.In terms of action,the property rights reform policy process is characterised by uncertainty and risk,and local governments have to learn not only how to integrate resource elements to improve the collective economy,but also to distribute collective benefits and provide village public goods in a rational manner so as to achieve the policy objectives.