Source: "Chinese Administration", 2016 (5), 94-101.

Fan Yong-Mao, associate professor of Public Policy and Public Finance Institute

School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China

It often has complex causes and mechanisms behind the generation and change of public policy. Since the 1980s, the western public policy scholars developed intermittent - theoretical framework equilibrium theory, multiple streams theory, policy entrepreneur models to attempt to describe the dynamic and complex policy development and evolution, of which, Initiative Coalition Framework is a very well-known theory model with strong explanatory power, and applied to the analysis of many policy areas. In many areas of public policy, education policy is an area widely discussed and studied in western policy scholars, and it has a wealth of policy experiments in practice. Especially in China, in the last three decades it has produced a lot of major education policy changes. For contemporary Chinese education policy concerned, the most important issue is the fairness of education. Especially with the acceleration of urbanization in China, the huge education for migrant children has been very prominent. Take college entrance examination which affects the vital interests of millions of families and candidates as an example, due to being confined to the existing specific system, a large number of children in the movement is unable to participate the important examination that can change their lives. It will bring a major impact on education fairness and inclusiveness, causing widespread concern and discussion. From 2013, under the support and guidance of relevant state departments, "Off-site College Entrance Examination " reform in some places has already been kicked off, but until today this reform is still facing many difficulties and obstacles.

In this paper, we adopt the most influential, the most attention paid, but also the most contradictory " Off-site College Entrance Examination " policy reform in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong area as an example, use the Initiative Coalition Framework theory to analyse the process of policy reform, focus on the different stakeholders and the process of starting their game, and try to explore difficult and critical point of "Off-site College Entrance Examination" reform, to further sort ideas of the reform. Specifically, this paper will focus on the following issues: First, the relationship between intergovernmental system which is dominant in coalition and public policy; second, how policy subsystem internal participants use external events to enhance their influence in internal subsystems; third, how interest groups adopt the policy to maintain stability and the fundamental interests of their core beliefs.

"Off-site College Entrance Examination" problem refers to the non-domicile candidates to take the exam. It has mainly two forms: one is the "Off-site College Entrance Examination, local admission"; the other one is the "remote college entrance examination, discounted admission scores in their hometown." But the term has yet to be officially recognized and adopted. Yuan Gui-Ren, Minister of Education, said in an interview in March 2011 during the Fourth Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress. The word "Off-site College Entrance Examination" itself is not accurate and should describe how the migrant children in the flows participate in the subsequent compulsory examination, because "Off-site College Entrance Examination" can easily be misunderstood as "entrance examination immigrants", to win more college entrance opportunities. It will deviate from the definition of the identity of the migrants' children. But the connotation of "children or wife entering the college entrance examination" has been accepted by the society and major media in the news have adopted "Off-site College Entrance Examination" instead of "Migrant Workers' Children to participate in local entrance examinations", which seems to be a complex title. In social discussion, its extension has been enriched and extended to college entrance examination problem including not only the migrant workers' children officially pointed, but also the non-agricultural children in floating population. Here, we use the concept of "Off-site College Entrance Examination" referring to migrants' children in the flow, rather than domicile in order to take the exam and admission.

After combing union initiative faith, policy learning process and the role of policy subsystems of three places- Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou “Off-site College Entrance Examination" , the paper argues that from the analysis of policy formation and change from the centre and three representative areas "Off-site College Entrance Examination", the fundamental reason for policy change is when the original system is incompatible to the social and economic situation and the international environment are incompatible, and cannot complete its normal function, the State will changes to the system based on the requirements of the times. The direct cause of change is policy belief systems conveyed by the interest demands from participants and aspirations of the learning adaptation process of policy subsystems. Changes in "Off-site College Entrance Examination" policy also suggests two types of changes of the policy: stakeholders are in pursuit of the potential benefits and some exogenous variables in institutional environment which induce the changes of policy, forming the induced institutional change pathway; certain non-formal system turning into formal system results in government-dominant mandatory system and policy change pathway. Although the causal mechanism behind these two types of path varies, induced institutional changes achieved by conscious action from interest related stakeholders based on the mutual recognition. Mandatory institutional change is not from stakeholder voluntarily behaviour, but from coercive means by State or Government to take which is driven by expected profit. In terms of the relationship between policies and environment interaction, the most prominence is the conflict between reality needs of social mobility and the existing system. Policy change of "Off-site College Entrance Examination" itself may not be the overall pattern change, but reflects the evolution of a specific innovation or policy development pattern established in the basic premise. Because of higher education resources has a certain public goods character, the government established management system is the prominent factor to promote or hinder the realization of the interests of all stakeholders or the benefits of growth ("Pareto improvement"). In addition, informal ideas, habits, attitudes, ethics, public opinion will be invisible to shape the behaviour of the various stakeholders. It makes the Chinese college entrance examination policy and many other policies of transition involve with profound historical background and a clear political mark.

Two systems, interests and beliefs, has reflected common challenges of China's current public policy formulation and implementation: the value of pluralism in the environment, involving a wide range of interest groups, great impact, many factors resulting in policy reform. "Off-site College Entrance Examination" policy changes experience also shows that efforts of policy participants sometimes cannot directly promote policy changes, but indirectly contribute to the policy by changing the soft factors such as power structure, basic rules, policy subsystem, culture and environment. China is now entering a period of rapid social transformation, with social interest groups under rapid differentiation and integration, and different interest groups hold significantly different expectation and needs on the college entrance examination policy change. Therefore, the key to find the way of cooperation of various stakeholders is to design an innovative system, establish a mechanism for the balance of interests, to meet the collective rationality on the basis of individual rationality of stakeholders, and play games in this orderly mechanism. Such a system or mechanism may be a pathway for stakeholders toward cooperation from in-cooperation.

Public administration scholar description:

Fan Yong-Mao, associate professor of Public Policy and Public Finance Institute of SPAP of Renmin University of China, master tutor, and he holds a Master degree of Public Administration from Dalhousie University in Canada, a doctor degree in political science from Northern Illinois University, USA, a former researcher of education humanities and social science Ministry research basement of China public administration research centre at Zhongshan University, executive editor of Public Administration Review, a member of post-doctor of Friendship Association of Guangdong Province, Shenzhen Municipal Finance Committee planning expert , and guest commentator at the "People's Daily", China Radio International, Chinese network, Xinhua, Southern TV, TV and other media in Hong Kong. Now he is the cadre in the 8th Xinjiang Supporting Program of Central Organization Department, and vice dean of School of Administration of Xinjiang Agricultural University.