Research On Public Participation Of River Chief System

The River Chief Policy(RCP)was first introduced and implemented to solve the environmental crisis and reinforce river protection,which emphasizes the leading local officials’ responsibility and authority in river management within their own jurisdictions.As the RCP becomes normalized,the involvement of social forces has to be taken into account,corresponding to the transformation from environment management to treatment,and that’s where public participation in the RCP began.Under this background,the administration has encouraged public engagement,and started to probe appropriate citizen’s participation mechanism.However,policy advocacy doesn’t guarantee the general effectiveness and the validity of public participation in the RCP becomes the problem.This research takes G district as a case study to examine the feasibility in the implementation of the RCP in Nanjing,and show the local governments’ and publics’ roles in the whole system.Based on that,using qualitative interview method,we explore how publics get involved in the RCP with the contribution of governments,volunteers,publics and enterprises make public participation possible.By analyzing the practice of the RCP in G district,we found that the need for government,the leading role of private volunteers,the rational expression of public interest and the assistance of enterprise make the public participation possible.The government uses the power of private volunteers and experts to deal with the scale of the river and the professionalism of water management,which provide the foundation of public participation.The rise of online governance has made the public not silent any more.They began to make more vocal about river governance issues.The existing atmosphere of consultation has made the expression of public interests more rational and centralized,reducing conflicts between them.Volunteers are the most distinctive symbol of public participation.Their social capital accumulated through decades of volunteering experience and their status as “government assistants” make them gain the trust of community residents and the government,and then become a bridge between the government and the public.Finally,we find that companies,which are naturally "profit-oriented",are no longer absent.Various river-related companies,either at the initiative or at the "request" of the government,cooperate with communities on a regular basis,providing manpower and resources to provide motivation for community river patrol volunteers.At the same time,influenced by the political system and culture,public participation in our society is not yet at a mature stage,so the participation in the RCP can be problematic.First of all,as one of the participating subjects,private river chiefs show the characteristics of "fragmentation",which is mainly reflected in the disconnection between private river chiefs,the public and the government.Second,the public participation in the river system is still essentially "weak participation",mainly reflected in the distinctive personal interest-oriented characteristics,which leads to a part of the environmental awareness is still lacking,bringing trouble to river management.Finally,I found that volunteer teams are not supported by the government.Governments at all levels have recognized the importance of public participation,but there are still dilemmas in public participation.