Research On Government Information Service Innovation In China

As a strategic resource, government information is gaining popularity in this information society. How to allocate government information resources efficiently and effectively has become an important issue for the government and the society. Because The Decree of Government Information Openness was legislated at a low level and it lacked normative force, guiding force and binding force, its effect in promoting the government information service has been limited, thus failing to reduce the gap between the supply and demand thereof. The insufficiency and inefficiency of the government information service has incurred a series of social problems:the distortion of government information has impacted the society’s stability; the deficiency of government information service has inhibited the economic development; the absence of government information guidance has misled its citizens and slowed down the civilization precess. The system of Chinese government information service is soaring for a reform, in which new ideas and innovation are especially needed to meet an increasing demand from the public.This dissertation explores the core problems of China’s government information service. It tries to find out the problems first, then explores the roots underlying, and then gives several options to solve those problems, and at last suggests a mechanism of institutions as an assurance.Chapter2analyses the status quo of China’s government information service in26provinces via questionnaires. It was found that the overall level is still not satisfying. In this chapter, the problems hindering the government information service include the lack of service awareness, insufficient information supply, the lack of information technology, mismatching between encouraging and restraining methods and the expansion of information gap. The issues mentioned above result from various factors, such as, cultural reasons where ignorant thoughts are rampant; institutional reasons where the power in the governors’hands overrides legislations; economic reasons where an income gap has caused an information gap; and social reasons where the public lacks awareness of protecting their interest by interfering the policy-making processes.Chapter3analyzes how to reform China’s government information service. Based on the practices from home and abroad, this chapter presents three feasible solutions to optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the government information service in China. The first solution is to correct service ideas, and reconstruct administrative cultural value, change economy-oriented service into people-oriented service, and discriminated service into equal service. The second is to expand the subjects who provide the government information service. Non-profit information service can be offered by the government, a third department and public welfare organizations. The profit-making information service can be provided in the market by entrepreneurs under the support of a third department and the supervision of the government. The third is to change the service modes, in which the government is the dominator, market is the guide and public are the participants.Chapter4describes the innovation of the government information service as a kind of institutional change. According to relavent theories on institutional change, the researcher concludes that China cannot reform its government information service without taking the following four aspects into account, they are:the traditional political culture, Chinese political system, the existing interest groups and the dual economy mode. Yet, on promoting the government information service, a consensus has reached from the central government to the public. Considering those factors, the researcher suggests that the innovation should be slow and progressive and should be leveraged by both the government and the public. Under the guidance of theories on property rights and governing procedure reengineering, the researcher designs a progressive innovation path of "awareness reshaping—system reform organization restructuring—rights division—performance motivating—institutional assurance". Awareness reshaping aims at innovating service ideas. System reform in politics and economy aims at optimizing the innovation milieu. Organization restructuring aims at perfecting the functional structure of all departments and organizations concerned. Rights division offers a solution to allocate interests rationally within the functional structure. Performance motivating aims at stimulating spontaneous driving force for the innovation.Regulations can be regarded as the assurance of government information service. The good overall milieu can not be created without the regulations which insure a division of rights. Service subjects can not be expanded without the regulations on entering and withdrawing from the market for the government information. Service subjects’ behaviors can not be regulated without proper incentives and supervision. The non-profit government information service will not be encouraged without a reasonable evaluation and a proper motivation of their performance. For those issues mentioned above, chapter5suggests five institutions complying with the innovation needs, and points out the necessity of establishing a series of formal institutions to sustain the innovation.Chapter6sums up all the contents in this dissertation:China’s government and its functional departments have to renew their service ideas, keep their service open, equal and just, and take economic and social development as the starting point and standing point. To achieve this, they should first break the the government’s monopoly in this field, introduce in competition mechanism, and encourage public organizations, entrepreneurs and individuals to participate and invest into the government information service. The government should issue regulations to protect investors’interest. The government and its functional departments, who has unavoidable responsibilities for cultivating the information market, maintaining a good order in the market, and making sure the public get information, should provide open and public government information,There are two aspects which distinguish this dissertation from all other similar or relevant researches:Firstly, it applies the theories and methods of institutional economics, property rights theories, incentive and game theories to analyzing the allocation of government information resources, so as to explore and design the innovation path. This helps expand the horizon and methodology for research on government information service. Secondly, it divides the government information service into profit-making service and non-profit service, which should be undertaken by different service subjects. This helps enrich the research contents on this issue.