The population issue has always been a core topic of strategic significance i n China's national social and economic development. Whether the population i ssue is resolved or not is not only related to the effectiveness of national gov ernance, but al...
The population issue has always been a core topic of strategic significance i n China's national social and economic development. Whether the population i ssue is resolved or not is not only related to the effectiveness of national gov ernance, but also directly affects China's comprehensive sustainable developm ent and economic growth. Fertility policy is one of the important public polici es in China and also an important policy tool for the state to regulate the siz e and structure of the population. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China's fertility policy has undergone multiple adjustments a nd improvements. Through the study of the changing process of China's fertil ity policy, one can not only understand the reasons for the changes in fertilit y policies in each period, the process of their development and improvement, as well as the impacts brought about by China's social and economic develop ment. This study takes the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET) in the chang es of public policies as the theoretical basis to explore the key factors of the changes in China's fertility policies. The core viewpoint of the punctuated equ ilibrium theory is that in the process of public policy change, there exists bot h a long-term stable equilibrium state and the possibility of short-term chang es. By sorting out the policy change history of China's fertility policy, it is fo und that the policy change process has the characteristics of long-term stabil ity and short-term change, which is in line with the core viewpoint of the pu nctuated equilibrium theory. This thesis mainly employs policy text analysis m ethod, literature analysis method and historical proximity method. The change s in China's fertility policy are divided into four stages. By analyzing the econ omic development concepts, policy scenarios, policy decision-making venues, and attention shifts of the four stages, the policy change process and factors of China's fertility policy have been sorted out and analyzed. Moreover, this s tudy also analyzed the current three-child policy, pointing out the implementa tion effect and existing problems during the implementation process of the thr ee-child policy. The evolution process of China's fertility policy not only helps to understand the pain points in the development of China's fertility policy, but also deepens the understanding of the relationship between China's populat ion and policy, and provides a direction for future policy changes.