Policy implementation is the central segment of public adminis-tration activity of the government for achieving the policy purpose. And it is of the most direct, important and frequent political affairsand of the determine factor of solving basically the policy problemsand putting into policy scheme. As following the continuously accu-mulation of practice experiences of human social policy and thegradually maturity of policy science research, and taking Americaas the represent of policy scholars of western countries, they takemore and more concerns on probing into the policy implementationfrom the 1960s and 1970s in 20 Century, especially the failure ofthe reform policy projects of"the great society"by Johnson Gov-ernment of America, make people pay highly concerns on the re-search of policy implementation. In China, Scholars positivelydrew lessons from and absorbed the theory achievements about thepolicy science research of western Countries, and, carried on ef-fectively probing into the problems which is taking place in theprocess of the important policy working-out and policy implemen-tation by the party and the state like as"Chinese reforming-and-opening-up"policy. But people usually analyze from the pointviews of policy implementation resource, environment, means, power, obstruction and implementation deviation, but didn't payenough attentions on analyzing profoundly the possible contradictionand conflict problems in the process of policy implementation fromthese aspects such as interest, institution and culture.
This book tries to using the related theories of social conflict, policy science, administration organization science, institutional e-conomics which are beneficial to multiply analyze the policy implementation conflict problems. Public policy, as the standards of ac-tion which the party and the government made out during theprocess of selecting, synthesizing, allotting, fulfilling the socialpublic benefits according to the social goals at special time, are thevalid regulation and adjustment to the contradictions or conflictswhich always turn up by the objective community pursuing of theirown greatest benefits. Therefore, public policies themselves are akind of institutional arrangement to the contradictions and conflictswhich exist in all kinds of benefit relations in public fields. Further-more, the implementation of public policy, as a kind of legal ac-tion of the government, is the process of political action which putsthe basic spirits and the basic contains of public policies into effect, and also is the specific process of the implementation which authon-tatively allots social benefits or social resources, or the process ofpractical solution and adjustment to the social contradiction andconflict. Because of all sorts of factors existing, these or those con-flict problems possible take place during the process of the implementation of public policy. The conflicts of the implementation ofpublic policy are of the policy phenomena of mutually contradicting, disputing or attacking on these aspects as conception, attitude, mentality and action. which are aroused by the contradictions ordifferences of policy goals, consciousnesses and benefits and insti-tutional deficiency existing between the subjects of implementingpolicy and the aiming subjects, between the subjects of implemen-ting policy and the subjects of implementing policy, and betweenthe aiming subjects and the aiming subjects during the process ofthe implementation of public policy.
This book mainly takes the contradiction and conflict existingthe process of the policy implementation as the logical starting pointof the research, and draws lessons from the theories achievementsof the related conflict research for looking at carefully the policy im-plementation problems and giving synthetically and systematicallyresearching the policy implementation and conflict problems. At thesame time, the paper takes institutional analysis as the importantresearching instrument and concentrates on the theories achieve-ments of institutional economics research, and try to logically ana-lyze the institution supply to policy implementation conflict and ana-lyze the impacts, the defects and the transformation for probing intothe operation laws and the effective response systems. The institu-tional analysis methods we adopted, which taking Maxism pointviews as guide, and effectively absorbing the western New Institu-tional Economics theories and the basic hypothesis, and integratingour country's actual conditions, with the attitudes such as Libera-ting thoughts, Seeking Truth from Fact, and Following the situa-tion, try to analyze and study the conflict problems during theprocess of policy implementation for the purpose of serving the ef-fective implementation of the party and nation and the constructivesuggestion of solving the policy implementation conflicts.
The institutional analysis of policy implementation conflict isbuilt by the base of these hypotheses such as the reason of"Eco-nomical Man", the shortage of resources, the dissureness of infor-mation, and analyses the conflict problems during the process ofpolicy implementation from it's institutional structure. The fa-mous New Institutional Economist, Douglas. C. North thought, ainstitution I's a sery of regulations, the process of obeying the lawand behavioral moral standards, for the purpose of restraining indi-vidual behavior who pursuing the maximum of the main-body'swelfare or benefit. And the institutional structure defines and regu-lates the free choice space of people's activities and pursuing themaximum benefit by the analysis of cost and benefit, and regulatespeople's activity relationship and behavioral boundary with certaininstitutional arrangement, establish the social rules of people'sreward and punishment, encouragement and supervision, then ra-tionally regulates people'a beneficial distribution patterns and themodel of resource allocation. The institutional analysts think thatindividual's purpose and requirements are limited by institutions, and are a free and rational choice in the definite scope of institution-al frame. North also thinks that institution offers the frame of peo-ple's mutual effects, and institutional frame restrains people'schoices, and institutions are a set of formal and informal regulationsand processes of abiding by the law and behavioral moral and ethi-cal standards, for the purpose of restraining individual behaviorwho pursuing the maximum of the main-body's benefit. And theindividual's beneficial maximization is the only maximal choice a-mong the definite choice.
The condition of institution provision is the primary variable ofleading to the implementing policy conflicts. As institution is akind of rare and shortage resource, there must he undoubtedly cer-tain functional relationship between the standard of institutional provision and the emergence, development, changing and ending ofthe implementing policy conflicts. It may be said that the inadequa-cy or superflux of system provision is the logical starting point ofleading to conflicts of implementing policies. In the present frameof systems, the conflicts of implementing policies bring about somepositive effects such as strengthening expression of benefits in im-plementing policies, improving the operational efficiency of policysystem, safeguarding the stability of the policy implementing sys-tem, enhancing the prescription of adjusting and ending of poli-cies, promoting effectively the allocation of the institutional re-sources of implementing policies. In the other hand, it also leads tonegative effects mainly displaying as the deviation of policy imple-mentation, the rising of implementation cost, the confusion of sys-tem and so on. Since the period of institution life changes with thecircumstance outside and is affected by the cost control and path de-pendence on its own structure's adjustment, the defection of insti-tutions is inevitable. So the defection existing in the arrangement ofinstitutions is the profound reason why turns up the conflicts of poli-cy implementation. It is very likely to lead to the conflicts of imple-menting policies when the provisions or arrangements of institutionssuch as policies themselves, communication of information and po-litical participation are defective and some informal institutions arebackward.
The institutional innovations are the process of the replace-ment, the transformation and the transaction of institutions. That isto say, the processes are the new institutions with higher efficiencywhich replace with the old institutions(initial institutions) of low-er efficiency. As a result, the institutional innovation can providewith a new structure of benefit for satisfying the interest requests oftwo parties who are in conflict with each other during the implemen-tation policy. It can also offer a newly beneficial structure whichhelps both related parties to cooperate and to gain additional profitsoutside of this kind of benefit structure. That is, both parties whoare in conflict with each other can be satisfied and he compensatedproperly in benefit, goal, mentality, part and so on, and therebyachieve win-win effect. So the institutional innovation becomesthe best method that can help to solve the conflicts between the per-sonal reason and the collective reason of implementing policies, and the important safeguard mechanism which is apt to realize theBaleter improvement of benefits of every party who conflict witheach other. The improvement of institutional innovation is chieflyaffected by the subjects and objects of implementing policies whenthe conflicts of carrying out policies are being adjusted. As far asthe subjects are concerned, the behavioral subjects who participatein the innovation of institutions including the organizations of imple-menting policies. Their basic motive is in order to gain their pureprofits from the institutional innovation according to the hypothesisof"Economical Man". As to the objects, institutional innovationis chiefly affected by the constitutional system of the party and thegovernment, the social ideology, the conditions of institutional ar-rangement of implementing present policies and the level of the de-velopment in national economy, politics, and culture. Amongthem, the path reliance of social belief system which is constructedby the social ideology will make great influence on implementingpolicies and institutional innovation. The institutional innovation inconflicts of implementing policies should decrease in the deficiencyphenomena of institutions ofer the presenting policy and guidingprinciples and political lines of the party and nation and constitu-tional frame, and should persist in certain principles such as syn-thesizing and coordinating, seeking truth from fact, adjusting gradu-ally and feedback of information.
There are many chiefly patties to he selected to improve institu-tional innovation in conflicts of implementing policies such as, re-inforcing the innovation of the system of drawing up policy for im-proving the quality of policies; reinforcing the innovation of the in-stitution of the informational communication for pushing on buildinge-government of implementing policies; reinforcing the innovationof the institution of citizen participation to provide a platform wherecitizens and government can talk freely with each other; reinforcingthe innovation of the institution of encouraging to make system ofpolicies work more effectively; reinforcing the innovation of the su-pervision institution of implementing policies to impel the construe-tion of the honest government; reinforcing the institutional innovation of the investigation responsibility to enhance responsible con-sciousness of the subjects of implementing policies; reinforcing theinnovation in informal institution of implementing policies to im-prove the advance of policy culture. By building, innovating andperfecting these institutions above, we can effectively adjust allkinds of conflicts of implementing policies and ensuring every guid-ing principle and policy of the party and state into realization.
Key words: Policy Implementation Conflict; Institutional Pro-vision; Institutional Deficiency; Institutional Innovation.