Public Opinion On The Controversial Public Policies

Public policies are the guidelines for the public organizations in dealing with the social and public affairs, and they may determine the direction and the goal of the governmental management actions. With the popularization and development of the Internet, numerous public policies issued by the national and local government agencies have triggered controversies among the people, forming Internet hot topics. Previous studies on public policy and public opinion mostly focused on the influence of the latter on the former, and there is a lack of quantitative studies. Therefore, in order to make innovations in the research perspective and research method, this study attempt to set out from the online public opinion on the controversial public policies, and integrate both quantitative and qualitative methods,.In this paper, based on the related theories of public policy, a set of methods in classifying the public opinion on the public policies were established for the need of the current study. The research sample included 115 domestic public policies published between 2011 and 2013 which had triggered controversy. Through coding and statistical analysis, this study explored the distribution characteristics of the public opinion on the controversy public policies(including Time, Region, Field, and Communication), the reasons of public controversy, and public participation in the controversies in those public policies. Finally, conclusions were made and suggestions were provided.It was found that among the controversial public policies in China, the communication channels were relatively simple and public participation were relatively low. The mass media reports mainly focused on the surface of public policy issues and the diversification of public perception, but igored the underlying reasons of public controversy and the interest expressions behind the public opinion. Third party including experts and scholars in related fields have emerged in more than half of the controversial public policies in the process of communication.The cause of controversy mainly concentrated on the rationality, operation difficulty, and fairness of the public policies. Government agencies should stand at the point of the public as well as the reasons behind the controversy, and optimize the advocacy of public policy, public participation, and so on, in order to ensure the implementation effect of the public policies.