Study On Local Government's Performance On Precaution Of Mass Incidents Triggered By Land Expropriation (MITLE)

From the review of precaution practices of China's mass incidents triggered by land expropriation (it is abbreviated as MITLE hereinafter), we find that although all levels of governments have already spared no effort to advance the precaution of MITLE, both the emphasis and efforts on prevention are increasing, MITLE still happens in many regions which has been reported frequently and it is even more serious in some regions. Such a phenomenon does raise a lot of questions from the government and the public:Whether the effort of local governments'precaution of MITLE is effective? If it is effective, how effective is the precaution of MITLE? What factors would affect local governments' precaution of MITLE? In this background, the article carries out research about local governments'performance of MITLE precaution. Firstly, this study defines the related basic concepts, summarizes the basic theory such as the new public management theory and principal-agent theory, and illustrates the practical application of them. Secondly, from the angles of "precaution course" and "precaution result", "precaution efficiency" and "precaution effect", this paper puts forward the basic analytical framework of MITLE precaution performance. The paper discusses the composition and forming foundations of local government's precaution performance, analyzes the internal and external factors of MITLE precaution performance, describes the formation path of precaution performance, and explores the formation mechanism of precaution performance. Thirdly, this paper establishes the principle, contents and methods of performance evaluations, constructs the efficiency and effect evaluation index systems. After putting forward analytical framework and research assumption, this paper makes empirical analysis of efficiency and effect of local governments' performance of MITLE precaution based on data from investigation and interviews. Finally, this paper proposes strategies that may help local governments to improve performance of MITLE precaution. The main conclusions are as follows:(1) Local government's precaution performance of MITLE is a concept with rich connotation and complicated constructions. In the aspect of concept, it is a comprehensive expression of "precaution course" and "precaution result". In the aspect of content, it can boil down to "precaution efficiency" and "precaution effect". In the aspect of components, it can be divided into four main elements:the economy of input?the effectiveness of behavior? the efficiency of output and the benefit of result.(2) The formation of local government's precaution performance of MITLE is a course that several precaution organizations take a variety of measures to achieve goals under certain circumstance. To be specific, the formation basis of MITLE precaution performance mainly has three aspects:land expropriation project, precaution organization, laws and regulations. From the perspective of the transverse structure of precaution organizations, there are three kinds of MITLE precaution organizations:land expropriation departments, mediation organizations, and stability maintaining organizations. From the perspective of vertical structure, precaution organizations can be divided into four levels generally:level of local government, level of leadership in the precaution organization, level of division in the precaution organization and level of staff member. The influencing factors of MITLE precaution performance falls into two parts:external factors and internal factors. The external factors include policy environment, land market environment, land-population-society environment and others. The internal factors include incentive mechanism, constraint mechanisms and coordination mechanism and others.(3) Assessing local government's precaution performance of MITLE should stick to four principles:functional principle, scientific principle, feasibility principle and openness principle. The performance appraisal should be carried out focusing on "efficiency assessment" and "effect assessment". The efficiency assessment is a way to measure the local governments'work efficiency in the view of "input-output", which is an assessment of cost effectiveness, namely the consumption of administration cost should be reduced as much as possible with certain effect in MITLE precaution. The effect assessment is an evaluation of the implementation of political, economic and social goals, MITLE erupting and resolving status in precaution. The design of effect assessment aims at reflecting the influence of MITLE precaution in the aspects of economy, society and politics, and the situation of MITLE. Generally, these influences can be measured with public satisfaction, occurrence rate and so on. Pursuing such goals is an inevitable choice for governments who want to make a transformation and create a responsible and service-oriented government.(4) The positive analysis local governments' precaution performance of MITLE has two major parts:influence factors of local governments' MITLE precaution performance and performance assessment of local governments'MITLE precaution. Results from the analysis of influence factors show that the main external factors are relative law and policy, development of land transfer market, physical condition of land and the public cognition of land; and the main internal factors are organizational settings, workflow rule of MITLE precaution, constraint and coordination mechanism of MITLE precaution, personal style of leaders, personnel quality of staff, and work experience. This article selects Xiangyang city in Hubei Province as studying cases and makes efficiency and effect assessment of precaution on the basis of survey data. The empirical results of efficiency evaluation indicate that 9 districts in Xiangyang City have attached importance to technique in the course of the precaution of MITLE. Their prevention levels and prevention efficiency have been improved constantly from 2007 to 2015. The results from effect assessment demonstrate that Xiangcheng district has taken the top spot with superior political and social performance and relative lower incidence of MITLE, which followed by Zaoyang city, Nanzhang county and Xiangzhou District. Local governments of Xiangyang City can improve the MITLE precaution performance in three aspects. Firstly, perfect the precaution environment by improving the relative laws and policies comprehensively and promoting the precaution awareness of the public vigorously. Secondly, enhance the precaution ability of local governments by increasing precaution efficiency scientifically and accelerating the transformation of precaution thought. Thirdly, optimize the precaution mechanism of local governments by defining the precaution function rationally and establishing a healthy system for MITLE precaution.