Improving the Quality of Public Policy-Making in China: Problems and Prospects

ABSTRACT China has achieved tremendous progress in its efforts to introduce Western theories in public policy-making and launch its own theories in this respect. The magnitude of this introduction and application in central government has impacted greatly on its policy-making capacity. However, at the local government level, China still manifests a worri-some trend of sticking to rule of man and personal decision-making which caused enormous economic losses. China has to enhance its policy-making capacity at the local level by educating local government officials and disseminating knowledge on public policies. INTRODUCTION Since its establishment in 1949, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has undergone tremendous achievements amid difficulties, setbacks, and detours in its political development and economic construction. Public policymaking was one of the weakest points resulting in many policy failures and poor economic performance. From 1949 to 1978, the major policies were manipulated by one leader, Mao Zedong who single-handedly dictated the major political campaigns and economic policies which dominated the destiny of over 1 billion Chinese. Mao initiated the major campaigns during the 1950s and 1960s. The Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957, the Great Leap Forward in 1958, and the one-decade long catastrophic Cultural Revolution in 1966, to name just the major ones, inflicted heavy losses on economic development in China. Without a scientific mechanism for policy-making, it was a logical consequence of public failures and quality poverty as a result of one man's brain-work. At the beginning of the 1950's, China ordered the suspension of all courses and research in the science of public administration. All major universities and research institutes had to suspend their programs and disband related professionals. Since 1979, China has embarked on a reform road. During the process, the leadership in China has gradually realized the essential role of policy science in supporting and accelerating the economic reforms. The former chairman of the Chinese People's Congress, Wan Li, made a good summary. "We could not evaluate the scientific degree of our policies without the establishment of policy science. The failures of policies cannot be checked and handled in time. It is time to change the situation. " To build up its own policy-making science, the Chinese government and the academic community have made continuous efforts to improve policy-making. The whole 1980's witnessed a preparatory period when the decision-makers realized the indispensable role of decision-making theories. The whole 1980's welcomed a period when academic research and application went into full swing. President Jiang Zeming initiated the period by incorporating the task of making high-quality scientific and democratic decisionmaking into the top agenda of the political reforms in the 14th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1993. Country-wide, major academic research associations were set up to study and develop theories in this respect. Many major universities and research institutions sent professors and researchers to Western countries to study and do research on Western theories of public policy making. Chinese scholars have published quite a large number of textbooks and reference books on the subject. Many authors have expressed their strong wishes to initiate a policy theory with Chinese characters although everyone is clear that it is a long and difficult process. As far as the institutional structure is concerned, China now possesses the largest academic pool for research. Most of the major universities have established their own departments or majors of public administration, quite a number of scholars are capable of research and have published many textbooks in this area. As far as the government is concerned, leadership at various levels has emphasized the importance of policy science in economic decision-making. …