| As the part of the complete government, the local government’s functions play animportant role. The government’s functions are always changing and developing withthe time age, to adjust to the government, market and society. The change of the localgovernment’s functions not only follows the general, but also has its own developmentpath. On the one hand, it shifts with the transition from planned economy to marketeconomy; on the other hand, it adjusts with the continuous changes of the relationshipsof the central government’s power and the local’s, which was led by the unitaryadministration orientation system. However, a service-oriented government has becomean important object in the new period, accordingly, the local government’s duties haveto transfer t o public service, market supervision, social management and environmentalprotection. But in reality, because of the transformation and performance of the function,the old and new problems of the local government’s function all emerge. Learning theexperiences of the western developed countries and considering our own situation, thepaper tries to provide ideas for how to make full use of the government tools and tooptimize the local government’s function.As a carrier of the transformation and realization of local government’s function,the government tools, also called administration tools or policy tools, play an importantrole in government management and policy implementation. In theory, it is the core thathow to choose and apply the tools. Choosing the government tools should be not only inaccordance with “Object-tool†pattern, but also consider public interest and socialenvironment, concept, system, culture, etc. Moreover, in order to realize the object, thechoice should follow the tools’ own rythmn, combined with its own characteristics andinside and outside environment.Market economy, democracy promotion and civil society provide the social foundation for the choice and application of the government tools. However, somefactors, such as personal performances, old choice custom, social capital, also haveinfluence on the choice and application of government tools. Therefore, there are manyproblems, like tool failure, rational exploration. Take the case of the event of failure infood safety supervision, the paper tries to explore the practice process of toolapplication, to analyze the application mechanism and problems,in order to payattention to the ecological complexity of the tools and its application.In fact, it is the aim of the tools to realize the value rationality, which is the core ofthe optimization tools of our local government’s functions. From the micro level oftools, value rationality should guide tool rationality, combined with system rationality.From the level of organization, the organization ability of the local government shouldbe improved reasonably, stimulating market, social organization activity, and socialorganization’s undertaking ability, in order to choose and apply tools effectively. Fromthe macro ecological level, the social environment of tool application should beoptimized, by optimizing local political ecology, improving the performance appraisalsystem, constraining local core leaders, promoting the reasonable relationships betweenlocal government and enterprise and industry association. |
