西方模型移植還是扭曲性傳譯？中國行政改革的政策學習過程

Transfer to Western Model or Distorted Translation? The Policy Learning Process of Administrative Reforms in China

本文是回顧近年中國政府在行政改革上如何向西方吸收經驗。本文會以政策學習理論當中的「政策傳譯」觀點來剖析中國政府的跨國性政策學習行為，指出在行政改革上，向西方學習並非是簡單移植西方模型。在跨文化學習限制下，所謂學習往往存在大量自己的演繹和加工，然後重構外國的模型。向西方學習之目的往往是一種對舶來品崇拜之反映，加上實用性工具的輸入。本文將回顧中國行政改革於向西方學習之發展動向，並利用於深圳市試行的「行政三分制」改革來闡釋上述的觀點，指出這政策學習是在自訂之空洞構架下尋求國外的「對應物」進行理論填補，但最終出現「扭曲性政策傳譯」，以自身之認知立場來理解國外政策之意義。 This article reviews how the Chinese government draws lesson from theWestern world in its recent administrative reforms, and explores the issue ofcross-national policy learning for the Chinese government from theperspective of “policy translation” under theory of policy learning,pinpointing that learning from the West in the case of administrative reformsis not simply to transfer the Western model. Constrained by cross-culturallearning, the so-called learning is always conducted with learners’ owninterpretation and processing, then reconstructing the foreign model.Learning from the West usually reflects a sort of cargo cult and involves theimport of practical instruments. This article will review the developmenttrend of how the Chinese administrative reforms learn from the West andmake use of the reform of “Administrative Trichotomous System,” whichwas experimented in Shenzhen, as a case to illustrate the aforementionedpoints. We indicate that policy learning started with a self-developed emptyframework and tried to search for foreign counterparts to fill in the theoreticalframework. However, it produced a “distorted policy translation” ultimately,i.e., a biased comprehension of the foreign policy.

This article reviews how the Chinese government draws lesson from theWestern world in its recent administrative reforms, and explores the issue ofcross-national policy learning for the Chinese government from theperspective of “policy translation” under theory of policy learning,pinpointing that learning from the West in the case of administrative reformsis not simply to transfer the Western model. Constrained by cross-culturallearning, the so-called learning is always conducted with learners’ owninterpretation and processing, then reconstructing the foreign model.Learning from the West usually reflects a sort of cargo cult and involves theimport of practical instruments. This article will review the developmenttrend of how the Chinese administrative reforms learn from the West andmake use of the reform of “Administrative Trichotomous System,” whichwas experimented in Shenzhen, as a case to illustrate the aforementionedpoints. We indicate that policy learning started with a self-developed emptyframework and tried to search for foreign counterparts to fill in the theoreticalframework. However, it produced a “distorted policy translation” ultimately,i.e., a biased comprehension of the foreign policy.