The Effectiveness of Citizen Participation in Public Hearing of Current China

Public hearing system is regarded as the soul and core of modem administrative procedure; it plays a more and more important part in modem administrative affairs. Public hearing is an important way to listen to the voice of the public, and the main method to gauge public opinion before making public policies, laws, and regulations. In recent years, with the growing awareness of civic participation, public hearing system has played a big role in public policy-making process in contemporary China, but there is also a phenomenon that citizen participation is largely symbolic in most of the hearing, citizen participation cannot play its due role, and the effectiveness of citizen participation in public hearing is limited. Based on this background, the analyses about how to strengthen public hearing system construction, improve the representativeness of the representative and information disclosure system, are all very important to improve the validity of citizen participation in public hearings now to China.     

立法后评估中的公众参与“虚置”及治理路径

作为检验立法实效、提升立法质量、促进法律体系完善的立法后评估制度已逐渐在全国范围内展开实践。然而,在这种多方主体的博弈中,公众当前只是一种被动型或者功能型的“虚置”参与,无法发挥其积极性、主体性的作用。公众参与立法后评估的实践困境具体表现为:参与主体的构成失衡、参与内容的模糊、参与方式的“指令化”及参与效果的抑制。要突破这一困境,须正确认识公众参与评估的价值,从意识、制度、参与的指向及参与效果等方面构建参与路径,实现立法后评估中公众参与的有效性和制度化。     

Factors Explaining Public Participation in the Central Government Budget Process

This paper attempts to examine which factors explain public participation in the budget process in an international comparative approach. In particular, we investigate which socioeconomic, institutional, and political factors promote public engagement in the central government budget process. Using a sample of 93 countries, our results indicate that Internet penetration, population diversity, governmental financial situation, and budget transparency determine opportunities for public engagement in the central government budget process. In addition, we show that not only budget transparency promotes public participation but also public participation is necessary to enhance budget transparency.     

行政裁量控制中的裁量基准和公众参与

行政裁量在行政管理领域中被广泛地采用,没有行政裁量就没有行政管理。行政裁量权的合理运行,可以起到维护公共利益和公共秩序,提高行政效率的重要作用。为了规范行政裁量权的行使,确有必要通过裁量控制中的公众参与的三大程序制度对它加以控制。     

网络公众参与:现实反思与秩序重建

网络公众参与对社会的影响是双重的,既有利于推进公共决策的科学化和民主化,又由于存在的问题和非理性趋势而给社会政治环境带来消极效应.必须对网络公众参与中存在的现实问题进行理性反思,并从社会价值预期的合理确立、网络舆论引导机制的构建、网络制度建设和网络伦理建设等几个方面促进网络公众参与沿着理性、有序、规范的轨道发展,使其真正成为弘扬文明风尚、促进社会和谐的积极动力.     

公众参与的协商民主价值与发展趋势

公众参与是衡量现代社会民主程度和发展水平的一项重要指标。实践中我国公民参与的形式丰富多彩,其中蕴含了中国特色的协商民主价值。我国公众参与实践还存在一些问题,公众参与在公共决策中的应用应当实现效率与民主价值的恰当平衡。在执政党、政府与公民社会的推动下,公众参与在我国公共管理实践中将得到日益广泛的应用,成为社会主义民主政治的重要实现形式。     

信息公开、公众参与和开放型政府建设

传统行政管理组织的不透明性、严格的等级制度等,造成了一系列的政府问题。要解决这些问题就必须建立一种新型的政府,即"开放型政府"。开放型政府是一个信息输入与输出的循环体,公众参与即输入的过程,信息公开则是输出的过程,而"开放"就是由一个输入和输出构成的不断互动的环路。建设开放型政府是全球化和知识产业化的必然要求,是民主的必然要求,是世界各国政府建设的必然趋势,它对中国意义更加重要。目前开放型政府建设还存在诸如信息公开不足、公众参与不够等问题,因此,要加强开放型政府建设应该从这两方面入手:通过转变观念、加强立法等促进信息公开;从扩大基层民主、拓宽公民参与渠道等推动公众参与。     

科学民主化:食品安全规制中的公众参与

如何提升政府应对风险、保障公众健康的能力成为学界与政策实务界的讨论热点。在食品、环境与健康领域的风险规制中,充分保障公共利益似乎尤为困难。因为多种情况之下,风险规制的依据是专家的科学知识,结果仍然会引起公众对于行政政策以及专家的不信任。对此,在行政决策中平衡科学与公众参与两种力量日益重要,即科学民主化的问题,既强调专家的作用,又要使之与公众交流沟通。科学民主化事实上是公众参与的制度化,关于这一问题的研究对中国行政法的发展意义重大。     

公共参与的基层实践：农民自治组织的培育及其发展困境

提要现代社会的一个基本特征是社会管理上具有参与多元性。在中国现代化进程中，农民经济力量的成长对政治权力产生越来越重要的影响，农村民间组织尤其是经济合作组织大量涌现，其发展势头日益上升，逐步体现参与和监督精神，有助于公共性的发扬，为农村公共社会的培育构造着新的组织网络。     

关于网上价格听证的几点思考

本文在简要回顾国外迅速发展的电子参与实践的基础上,针对我国价格听证的实际,系统地探讨了一种新的公众参与形式——网上价格听证,分析了其功能定位,阐述了其实施要点,研究了网上价格听证在价格听证过程中的作用。     

Public Involvement in NHS Inquiries

Opportunities for engaging the public have changed over the fifty years since the inquiry into the Ely Hospital, Cardiff. NHS inquiries, and inquiries more widely, tend to be called where events have led to public concern and loss of public confidence. Involvement of the public could therefore be assumed to form a part of restoring that public confidence. This paper explores the mechanisms for public involvement in NHS inquiries over the past fifty years, assessing the roles played by the public. It uses the framework outlined by Geoffrey Howe to examine how members of the public have been involved in four NHS inquiries. Findings suggest that the roles and mechanisms have varied, but that understanding the extent of public involvement is a dimension to assessing each of the potential functions of an NHS inquiry.     

政府绩效评估中公众参与的限度及超越

政府绩效评估中公众参与开始兴起,并取得一定的成效,但另一方面其有效性受到了一些质疑。运用政府绩效评估的政治和经济双重逻辑评估了这些质疑,阐明公众在政府绩效评估中扮演消费者、监督者和生产者三种角色,公众参与有助于维护政府绩效评估的公平价值和责任导向。通过介绍美国政府管理中形成的参与式评估和专家型评估两种政府绩效评估模式,并在总结美国成功经验的基础上,得出超越我国政府绩效评估中公众参与限度的若干启示。     

Consultation,Participation and Policy‐Making: Evaluating Australia's Renewable Energy Target

A Review of Australia's Renewable Energy Target is used to contribute to the concept of negative externalities in consultation processes, including wasted investment by stakeholders and reduced investor confidence. The findings indicate that there is a need to establish clear consultation objectives. The paper concludes with a model for consultation agents to consider when initiating a consultation process. The model stresses the need to make objectives of the consultation process transparent to stakeholders, including the extent to which the outcomes of consultation are likely to result in changes to policy. Consultation agents and policy developers should seek to identify potential negative externalities at the outset of any consultation process, and address these within the consultation framework where possible.     

数据开放、公众参与和环境治理创新

随着网络信息技术的发展与大数据的产生,公众对于政府各类数据开放共享的要求日趋强烈,同时政府也可以通过数据开放共享推动公共治理创新。研究表明,政府通过环境数据开放可以让公众更好地参与环境治理,从而推动环境治理创新;环境数据开放使公众能够获得更多的环境信息,与政府进行有效沟通并形成良性互动,从而提升环境治理效果。针对数据开放与环境治理创新问题,提出了相应的政策建议:改革政府环境数据管理体制,加强政府与市场的合作;加强环境数据开放平台建设,打造"一站式"环境数据服务;加大宣传力度,调动公众利用开放环境数据的积极性。     

Public Information and Regulatory Processes: What the Public Knows and Regulators Decide

Because bureaucratic agencies may be less transparent in their decision processes than legislatures, most states have developed processes to incorporate input from regulated communities and other parties potentially affected by regulations. Administrative agencies may encourage democratic practices to increase legitimacy and accountability of the bureaucracy and improve decision‐making processes. However, rules governing the regulatory process vary by state, with some incorporating more open practices than others. Understanding these dynamics is increasingly important, as the rulemaking process has become central to policymaking over the past several decades, with a large portion of policymaking authority delegated to administrative agencies. Drawing from regulatory documents, rulemaking comments, media coverage, and interviews with regulators in 14 regulatory decision processes across five states, this study finds that while states vary in their approach to providing access to information, there are overriding patterns that reduce the role of citizens and the overall transparency of regulatory processes.     

西方环境决策中的公众参与:机制、特点及其评价

西方国家的环境决策日益注重普通公众的参与。在不同国家和不同机制中,公众参与存在着其他各种不同的尝试。但在基本程序方面具有相似性,一般由三个步骤构成:一是通过各种途径了解决策问题的相关知识和背景;二是通过小组讨论、沟通以及协商等对问题进行具体分析,并讨论该问题需要注意的各种价值、标准;三是通过工作小组的方式起草政策建议,并提请专家进行技术上的评估和咨询,并完成最终的报告。其主要特点是:注重公众参与者的代表性,公众参与介入决策的早期阶段,非专业公众与技术专家并重,公众参与过程的商议性。而局限性在于:参与成本高昂,参与和商议过程中存在着宏观与微观权力结构上的不平等,参与的代表性与商议质量之间的矛盾等。     

Learning Contested Lessons: Participation Equity and Electric Utility Regulation

Electric utilities have typically enjoyed a close and cooperative relationship with the state regulatory bodies that oversee them. In 2001, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission mandated that the largest Colorado utility build a wind power plant as part of its conventional generating capacity, despite the utility's vigorous objections. Local environmental groups, intervening in a form of rule making called Integrated Resource Planning, succeeded in overturning regulatory capture. This paper explains this anomalous case and highlights the role of knowledge and learning in the outcome. The case shows the opportunities and limitations of using contested technical knowledge to push for institutional learning. The case also suggests the importance of repeated policy processes. Wind energy advocates perceived that they had acquired participation equity, ownership in the process akin to Kingdon's “softening up,” which led policy makers to take their arguments more seriously, opening up the possibility of institutional learning.     

Public participation and the concept of space in environmental governance: An application of PPGIS

Citizen participation ought to be important in environmental governance. However, environmental issues are usually defined as science‐related ones, wherein expert knowledge is more important than the opinions, demands or needs of citizens. On the other hand, environmental issues involve spatial dimensions, the geographic characteristics of which require specific techniques to analyse. PPGIS is applied to study An‐Shun, the site of a well‐known pollution case in Taiwan, to reveal, through a participatory process, the perception of space of citizens of a nearby community. The results of this study suggest that the government needs to ensure more citizen participation in its future plans for the decontamination and renovation of the An‐Shun site. Lay knowledge or citizen perceptions of space should not replace scientific knowledge, but can supplement it. They are additional views that ought to be considered by government agencies in dealing with environmental issues. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.