Global Times | June 07, 2012
Lü Xiaobo
Efficient decision-making is widely seen as a characteristic of China’s political system. The profound changes that have taken place in various fields of this nation over the past decades all link to efficient decision-making by the Party and the government.
Especially since reform and opening-up began, there have been a series of effective policy decisions, such as turning away from chaotic class struggle and focusing on economic construction, launching the go-west campaign, introducing the socialist market economy.
The primary feature of the political decision-making in China is that it is led by the Party, which has the decision-making power and plays a core role in State organs. Through complex networks and operation mechanisms, the Party effectively integrates national power and various organs.
In regard to significant decision-making, it is often the Party which first starts a motion. Specific policy design is then conducted under the guidance and organization by the Party, and finally legalized through the appropriate channels.
The mass line has been stressed since the founding of the Party. As for decision-making, officials and personnel at all levels are required to delve into the grass roots and launch field investigations.
>Each year, top leaders do inspections across the nation. Local officials also routinely visit grass-roots households and conduct investigations and surveys around specific subjects. Experts and scholars also participate to provide suggestions and policy consulting reports.
Experimentalism is another important feature of China’s decision-making. There are barely any existing experiences or models for China to refer to on its path of development.
>Facing complex and fast-changing realities, it’s difficult for the central government to predict all kinds of possibilities. Since the initial stage of reform and opening-up, all significant policies have been gradually promoted after first being run experimentally in a pilot zone.
At the current stage, political decision-making is of unprecedented importance and difficulty.
>On the one hand, we now have a basis for growth. But on the other hand, some social problems, after years of accumulation, have become increasingly severe, like economic structural adjustment and regional development gap. Any decision-making may exert impact on a wide range of social groups.
Moreover, the public is growing increasingly demanding, and have less and less tolerance toward errors in government decision-making. The authorities have to make decisions with an increasingly cautious and scientific approach to avoid mistakes, especially in macro and long-term decision-making. The method of decision-making that relies on a few individuals’ will and power should be thoroughly expunged.
The democratic system should be improved, so as to ensure the expression of civil interests through various channels. Public policies should embody collective wisdom through full debates.
>A scientific system and reasonable procedures for decision-making should be upheld and improved. At the moment Party organs at all levels have think tanks for policymaking. But their functions haven’t been given full play yet.
Some research centers focus on drafting documents, rather than launching investigations into macro-policies, whereas some do propose valuable suggestions but fail to gain enough attention from local officials.
> Right now, facing a decision by the central government, Party committees and governments at various levels usually come up with only one implementation scheme.
>This actually limits decision-makers’ vision and range of choices. It also prevents full expression of all kinds of social appeals and may in turn hinder the overall efficiency of decision-making system.
Since reform and opening-up began, scientific decision-making has been boosted, and many significant decisions have undergone strict procedures before they were finally legislated.
>This should continue to be emphasized. One of the most important links of China’s decision-making reform is to build a diversified policy research and scheme designing mechanism in a democratic, equal and consultative atmosphere, so as to provide more thoughts and plans for decision-makers.
The author is a professor with the School of Government, Nanjing University.
