[Guangming Ribao]WANG Conghu: Strengthen Responsive Regulation to Promote Social Consensus

At present, “administrative interview” as a flexible means of supervision has become one of the commonly used methods of government governance, and it has also become an effective measure for the government to respond to social demands and take timely action. The theoretical community has classified it as “a responsive regulatory approach”. The concept of "responsive regulation" comes from Western developed countries. As a form of regulation approach or model, “responsive regulation” is based on a critique of “command and control regulate”. It is a reflection on the “confrontational regulation” of “developing detailed legal standards, relying on strict compulsory punishment, and implementing non-discrimination treatment”, and then proposes to establish “cooperation between organizations outside the government and the government”, that is, “proposes a series of new regulatory concepts and regulatory measures from the rational allocation of regulatory power between government and non-government."

Specifically, “Responsive Regulation” proposes that in the regulatory structure, a dialogue platform based on the governance organization network should be established to ensure that each supervisory entity should have a status and focus on improving the capabilities of each supervisory entity to form a regulatory pattern of common governance. In the regulatory tactics and approach, the single regulatory model or the regulatory channel that relies entirely on market regulation should be eliminated. Instead, multiple regulatory tools should be used together, and the diversity of regulatory entities and the diversity of regulatory tools should be emphasized. After “Responsive Regulation” was introduced into China, based on China's national conditions, the theoretical community generally believed that the government should pay more attention to the timeliness and sufficiency of the government's feedback on citizens' demands, and should pay more attention to the differential treatment and treatment of different situations of the regulated objects. New types of regulatory methods such as grading regulation and joint punishment should be gradually established.

It is undeniable that China, as a fast-growing large country, has significantly increased the complexity and uncertainty of social and economic regulation as the total economic volume continues to increase. To this end, the construction of a “responsive regulatory model” or “responsive regulatory state” is also on the agenda. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the role of social regulation and economic regulation, and proposed to modernize the national governance system and governance capacity. The State Council has put forward specific requirements: transforming government functions, deepening the administration of decentralization, innovating regulation methods, optimizing services, enhancing government credibility and execution, and building a government that the people are satisfied with.

With the continuous and in-depth advancement of China's “Simplified Administration, Combined Simplification and Management, Optimized Service” reform, how the government has innovated the regulatory method has become an important part of promoting the modernization of governance capabilities. In particular, issues involving the national economy and people's livelihood, such as national security, health, environmental protection and other important areas, must not only strengthen regulation, but also constantly innovate regulatory strategies and regulatory methods to enhance regulatory effectiveness. Taking the regulation of the Internet and food and drug sectors as an example, governments at all levels in China attach great importance to the responsiveness of their regulation, and highlight the “pre-existing” preventive regulation and “in-time” timeliness and effectiveness, such as emphasizing the adoption of big data to find the source of risk and respond in a timely manner; emphasize the hierarchical treatment methods such as interviews, warnings, and punishments, and deal with them in a timely manner. This is not only conducive to effectively preventing the occurrence and spread of sudden major events, but also conducive to the timely resolution and handling of various social contradictions and social problems.

As a reflection and transcendence of the traditional regulation mode, “Responsive Regulation” is based on the response to social changes and social contradictions. It is also an administrative management innovation that constantly condenses social consensus and deepens the “responsiveness” value orientation. To this end, based on the changing conditions of the international and domestic environment and technological innovation, we should establish a people-centered regulatory concept and build on the full use of new Internet technologies to continuously innovate and improve various responsive mechanisms and enrich various responsive strategies and methods.

We have reason to believe that as long as we are in the hearts of the people, we are determined to reform and innovate, a "responsive regulatory system" that can quickly adapt to complex environments, respond to public concerns, and efficient and convenient regulation will be perfected.

(WANG Conghu is the research fellow of NADS,RUC and Professor of School of Public Administration and Policy.)