Decoding Legislative Dynamics: Empirics on Bill Modifications in China

• In Event: New Perspectives on Policymaking

Abstract

Why do some bills undergo more substantial modifications than others in the legislative decision-making process? This study empirically examines the extent of bill modifications and their dynamics based on evidence from changes made to bills during the deliberation stage of the Chinese National People's Congress and its Standing Committee. By employing the improved minimum edit distance algorithm, a quantitative textual analysis is conducted to investigate the modifications that occur as a bill becomes a law. The aim of this analysis is to shed light on the black box of legislative decision-making and analyze the underlying institutional logic that influences the extent of bill changes. The results reveal the active role of the Chinese National People's Congress in bill modifications, demonstrating an increasing trend in the average extent of bill changes across sessions. Party leadership, public concern, and bureaucratic fragmentation significantly affect bill changes during the legislative process. Party leadership and public concern are found to have a substantial effect on increasing the extent of bill modifications, while bureaucratic fragmentation tends to decrease it. A case study of the legislative process for the Food Safety Law provides additional evidence that bills are more likely to be drafted ambiguously when there is a high level of bureaucratic fragmentation. Furthermore, a dramatic increase of public concern helps to break down departmental interests and foster consensus-building.

Authors

• Hui Yang, Tsinghua University

• Xiaohong Yu