| Food safety is related to the people’s safety and health, orderly economic development, social harmony and stability, which was paid extensive attention by all society. Reform on Food safety regulation is always an important part of administrative system reform in China, from 2003 to 2013.However, in recent years, major food scandal occurred constantly. The experience in different countries suggests that an effective food safety regulatory system is the necessary condition to decrease the food hazard.It is pointed out by the state council’s "The Decision on Further Strengthening the work of food safety", that there is serious problems in food safety regulatory system.Food safety regulatory issues involved in the multiple aspects, such as the relationship between regulators and regulated object, the regulatory system and so on. But the dominant influence of force behind its oversight is the problems about allocation of Regulatory power. Domestic academic research on this important issue is still in its infancy. From this sense, to some extent, this study is a kind of new exploration. Therefore, unlike most of the research on food safety regulatory perspective, the study based on the allocation of regulatory power in food safety; trying to answer the following some core problems:(1) How to allocate the regulatory power in China’s food safety? What is the logic of the allocation of regulatory power in China’s food safety? (2) What is the pattern of the change on the allocation of regulatory power in China’s food safety? (3) From the Angle of the allocation of regulatory power, how to further improve China’s food safety regulatory level?Around the core issue of research, the paper takes the cross-section study and the longitudinal study of the combination of research strategy. First of all, it introduces the research background, including:the related theories about allocation of regulatory power, China’s food safety regulatory system and so on, lay the foundation for subsequent research. Secondly, answer to the first core question, how to allocate the regulatory power in China’s food safety? What is the logic of the allocation of regulatory power in China’s food safety? This part uses the cross-section study, chose the static analysis perspective, divided into two dimensions, one is the horizontal dimension, analyzed the external performance and inner logic of the horizontal allocation of regulatory power in China’s food safety, introduces the controversy and challenges which faced. The another is the vertical dimension, the paper analyzes external performance and inner logic of the vertical allocation of regulatory power in China’s food safety, introduces the controversy and challenges which faced. Thirdly, answer to the second core question, namely what is the pattern of the change on the allocation of regulatory power in China’s food safety? This part adopts longitudinal study, chose the dynamic perspective. According to Peter Hall policy framework and other related theory on paradigm change, build up an observation analysis model of change about allocation of regulatory power. By analyzing model, it is to investigate the process of changes on horizontal and vertical allocation of regulatory power in food safety, and explain the reasons. Fourthly, based on the previous research, answer to the third core question, and give the advice on how to further improve China’s food safety regulatory level rom the Angle of the allocation of regulatory power. Finally conclusion was made and the future research was forecasted.Through the research, the paper tries to make efforts in the following aspects, and achieved some findings:(1) Based on the theory of administrative organization, the horizontal allocation of regulatory power in food safety is three patterns including "departmental regulations model", "departmental coordination regulations model" and "integrated regulation model". The former two patterns generally are called as the "dispersed regulation model". The institutional reforms to form China food and drug administration (CFDA) in 2013, marks the formation of "integrated regulation model". The logic is to break through the dilemmas of collective action in "dispersed regulation model". In the dilemmas, as the as the government’s overall regulatory goals or interests are incompatible with the departments" goals or interests, the regulators’opportunistic behavior will weaken the effect of the food safety regulation.(2) Based on the theory of administrative organization, the vertical allocation of regulatory power in food safety is five patterns including "the central vertical integrated regulation model", "the sending agency regulation model", "the cooperative regulation model", "provincial vertical regulation model" and "local regulation model". According to this division, our country present stage is "local regulation model", the logic is based on the assumption of "hierarchy represents" According to this assumption, the relationship between the central and local government is simply "command-obey the relationship". As a result, it can reflect the different function, respectively is:"the theory of division of labor efficiency", "pressure system theory", "incomplete information and preference theory" and "to reduce political risk theory". But in reality, the regulatory effect is not ideal, the reason is that "the hierarchy represents" assumptions already does not conform to the actual. Since China’s reform and opening up, local interests structures greatly accelerate the differentiation. The local government has evolved into a relatively independent main agent which has own interests. The simple "represents" hierarchy "command-obey relationship" has been replaced by "principal-agent" relation which local governments are dominated by their interests. The principal-agent problem decreases the effects of local regulation model. Which embodied in: multi-level principal-agency lead to inadequate regulatory incentives; the information asymmetry in the principal-agent cause the formation of opportunism in regulation; Agent dual role disturbance regulation; the regulatory ability of the agent is not balanced and the regulation of the cross-regional food problem fragmentation cause regulatory effect is affected.(3) The paper form an analysis framework on the allocation of regulatory power in food safety which combines the different angle of views including the policy paradigm theory, institutional change theory and so on. The framework make up of three layers including organized configuration, the attribute of regulatory power and the overall goals of policy from outside to inside. There are three kind of flow including issues flows, policy flows and political flows come into being the dynamic mechanism of the change. The framework helps to describes the performance of regulatory power’s change, explain the motivation and internal mechanism. This analysis framework expands the vision on the theory of regulation.(4) The research finds the paradigm of the allocation of regulatory power in China’s food safety shifts form "health supervision" paradigm to the "safety management" paradigm. In the "health supervision" paradigm, food is a kind of health problems, limited in the consumer segment; its regulatory overall goal is:to improve the quality of food, to prevent food contamination; the vision in the medical field. In the "safety management" paradigm, the food problem is a kind of safety issues, involving the whole process of food supply chain; it’s regulatory overall goal is:to ensure food safety, protect the public health and safety. Contains are the basic values of the "people-oriented and the idea of governing for the people, overall to perform the duties of the people’s government". This paradigm perspective integrated multiple disciplines, regard the food safety problem is a kind of "government responsibility" instead of medical problem. On the basis of the two paradigms, this research suggests that the development trend of food safety regulation is from "safety management" paradigm to "safety governance" paradigm. In "safety governance management" paradigm, the food is not only a safety issue, but also a governance problem, not only is the problem that the food industry, more involved in the joint efforts of the whole society; Regulation of the overall goal is:not only is the guarantee of public health and safety. Pay more attention to in a diverse regulatory body, diverse regulatory means, multi-channel cooperation and coordination mechanism based on social governance; This paradigm perspective integrated multiple disciplines, agents, means and channel, regarding the food safety problem is a kind of" social problems" instead of political problem. |
