| Responsibility is the "bounden duty" that the modern government should perform,and it is the basic principle of the modern government in governing the country.Henri Fayol pointed out that responsibility is the twin of power,the natural result and necessary supplement of power.Where power is exercised,there must be responsibility.Therefore,while obtaining power and resources,local governments must shoulder the responsibilities entrusted by the people.China’s constitution stipulates that all power of the state belongs to the people.In the modern representative government,the people cannot directly manage the state affairs and social public affairs,we must take a reasonable way to disperse the power and transfer the authority and responsibility of the central government to the local government,so that the local government can participate more in political decision-making and implementation.The practice of social reform at all times and in all over the world shows that the correct positioning and reasonable performance of the government’s responsibility are the premise of the healthy development of society.Similarly,the effective supply of the equalization of basic public services also depends on the correct positioning and reasonable performance of the government’s responsibility.In recent years,the Chinese government has issued a series of policy documents on equalization of basic public services.The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China points out that as socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era,the main social contradictions in our country have been transformed into the contradictions between the people’s growing needs for a better life and the unbalanced and inadequate development.How to meet the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life has become the starting point and ultimate goal of the work of governments at all levels in the new era.At the same time,Comrade Xi Jinping also pointed out that the government must make continuous progress in ensuring that people have access to childcare,education,employment,medical treatment,old-age care,housing,and support for the weak,and ensure that all the people have a greater sense of gain from development through joint efforts and shared benefits.In the report of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee,the Party pointed out that it is necessary to improve the public service system and promote the equalization and accessibility of basic public services.Under the promotion of the central government,the overall level of equalization of basic public services in China has been significantly improved,and the people’s satisfaction with governments at all levels has also shown a high level.According to the survey results of Harvard University in 2016,Chinese people’s satisfaction with the central government,provincial government,city and county government and township government is 93.1%,81.7%,73.9%and 70.2%respectively.Compared with the previous years,there are different degrees of improvement.The main reason for the improvement is that the people recognize the efforts made by local governments at all levels in various fields of basic public services.However,it should also be noted that compared with the high satisfaction with the central government,there is still room for continuous expansion in social governance,especially in the field of public services.Based on the basic rights of the public service,responsibility,efficiency as the core,with theoretical discussion-clarification of power and responsibility-index constructionEmpirical Evaluation-policy recommendations for the basic logic,surrounding the problem of "what’s the local government should take responsibility for",this paper specifically studies the following questions:what stages have local governments gone through in fulfilling their responsibilities in terms of people’s livelihood?In what areas do local governments have power and responsibility?What are the indicators of these powers and responsibilities?What are the problems in the performance of local governments’responsibilities in China through the empirical study?To improve the level of equal access to basic public services,what prescriptions can be proposed from the perspective of local governments’ responsibility?The answers to these questions naturally constitute the main content of this study.Firstly,the people’s livelihood has always been the top priority of the Party and the government,and the goal of the Chinese government is to ensure that all the people have a good life.In this study,the performance of local governments in the field of people’s livelihood over the past 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China can be roughly divided into four stages,namely,the initial stage before the reform and opening up,the exploration stage in the initial stage of market economy,the improvement stage of scientific development,and the standard and norm stage with emphasis on equity.In these four different stages,the policy environment,value orientation,policy objectives,formulation mode and implementation mode of local governments in the work of basic public services(equalization)have shown more obvious changes,from the low-level average in the early days of the people’s Republic of China to the high-level equalization at the present stage,from the scattered progress in education,medical and other fields to the development of the basic public service system.Governments at all levels in China have achieved remarkable results in fulfilling their responsibilities in the field of people’s livelihood construction.Secondly,the model of equalization of basic public services for local governments is constructed.Based on the clue of "the whole link" proposed by Jones in the introduction to public policy research,this study takes the idea that problems enter the government-actions in the government-Government Dealing with problems-projects return to the government.In the era of government,market,citizens and other multiple governance subjects jointly participate the equalization of basic public services and jointly promote social equity,this paper constructs the local government’s model of policy,planning resources,implementation,evaluation and supervision.Under this model,the responsibilities of local governments are determined,and the theoretical basis for the responsibility of local governments in the equalization of basic public services is established.This is also the logical starting point of this study.Thirdly,just as we want to investigate the teaching situation of the class,a test paper with moderate difficulty,reasonable structure and rich content is an indispensable tool.This study intends to clarify how the responsibility construction of local governments should be detailed and what indicators should be used to measure it.Therefore,it tries to build a responsibility assessment framework for equalization of basic public services of local governments composed of three levels of indicators.First of all,we need to determine the value orientation and value standard of scientific indicators.The establishment of the index system is a process of scouring the sand in big waves,removing coarse and refined materials,and then scientific processing.This process is bound to balance and choose many values and information.In this study,the balance between fairness and justice,the balance between government authority and governance technology,the balance between science and operability,the balance between consistency and independence of indicators are taken as the research direction.On the basis of clearly defining the connotation of local government responsibility,making clear the guidance and construction principles of the indicator system,we first build a broad indicator pool.In order to eliminate the "noise" in the indicator pool,we use membership screening,common factor variance screening,correlation screening,coefficient of variation screening and other methods to screen indicators layer by layer to improve the accuracy of the indicator system constantly.In order to verify the rationality of the index system,we use scientific methods to test the reliability and validity of the indicators,and further screen out the indicators that do not meet the reliability and validity standards,so as to ensure that the reliability and validity of the indicators are within a reasonable range and meet the statistical reliability and validity standards.This chapter is the central link of the overall research.In the process of index construction,the theoretical basis of the previous work is used.Meanwhile,the research results of this part also become the starting point of the subsequent chapters.Fourthly,this paper compares and evaluates the responsibilities of equalization of basic public services of local governments in the eastern,central and western regions of China through empirical research.In this study,6 provincial governments,18 municipal governments and 36 county governments in eastern,central and Western China are selected and the performance of responsibility of their local governments is empirically evaluated.This part makes a comparative analysis from two aspects:the quality and the difference of the local government’s performance of responsibility.In terms of the quality of responsibility,we innovatively adopted the "accountability quality index" to present the current situation of local governments’ accountability in a visual and detailed way.Assumed responsibility for the quality indicators can only roughly reaction in a certain region,levels of fulfillment of the local government responsibilities,so we have to compare the differences of assumed responsibility for the quality analysis,showing that a region,levels fulfillment of the overall responsibilities of local government under the condition of overall quality,further clarify the equilibrium degree of assumed responsibility for the quality,then is the "common good" or"be averaged".At the same time,the multiple regression method is used to judge the factors that may affect the equalization and accountability of basic public services of local governments,and to provide ideas for local governments to optimize the equalization of basic public services to fulfill their responsibilities.Fifthly,from the perspective of local government’s performance,this study attempts to provide a prescription for local government’s performance in the equalization of basic public services.This paper explores the path optimization of the equalization of basic public services of local governments.Taking the empirical research conclusion as the breakthrough point,first of all,the overall performance of policy formulation and responsibility implementation is balanced.How to scientifically absorb public opinion and how to provide"high quality" basic public services for the public on the premise of "sufficient quantity" has become the focus of local governments’ attention.In terms of resource planning,it is found that local governments at different levels in different regions have great differences in their ability to absorb and store resources,especially high-quality resources.How to further improve the public finance system and make up for the resource gap between central and western regions and lower-level governments is an urgent problem to be solved in the next stage.In the assessment and supervision responsibility,China’s "performance culture",which emerged in the 1990s,has shown great achievements,and the momentum of assessment and supervision is good.From the regional perspective,the quality of local governments’ performance of responsibility is uneven in China,which generally maintains a trapezoid trend of east-central-west.However,with the improvement of the governance ability of local governments in the western region,the gap between the central and western regions has been weakening.From the perspective of government levels,the quality of grassroots governments’ accountability has become a weakness,and the balance degree of the quality of county governments’ accountability has also become the focus of this paper.Therefore,how to improve regional differences and hierarchical differences in a targeted way so that people can enjoy roughly equal basic public services under a fair policy environment is also the issue to be discussed in this chapter.First of all,it is necessary to strengthen the management and build an efficient management system for the equalization of basic public services of local governments.We should establish a scientific performance evaluation system,improve the supervision system,pay attention to the application of performance evaluation results,grasp the pulse of the times,seize the opportunity of the big data era,and realize overtaking at corners;Secondly,we should increase investment to solve the problem of mismatching financial power and administrative power of "grassroots finance crying for parents";Thirdly,focus on the local government’s self-development,strengthen the local government’s internal organization and coordination ability,and strengthen its own capacity-building;Fourthly,we should boldly innovate the mechanism of multiple subjects participating in the co construction and sharing,improve the resource allocation efficiency of local governments in the equalization of basic public services,and promote the equalization of basic public services to prosperity.The main points of this study are as follows:(1)According to the "whole link" theory of Jones,we take "the problem into the government--the government action--the government’s handling of the project--return to the government" for the train of thought.According to process of performing responsibilities of local governments in equal basic public services,we will make policy and planning resources as the former of the government responsibility,responsible for "problem into the government" and "action" of the government’s link,make the implementation and evaluation as the government’s responsibility in the middle,responsible for the "dealing with the problem" of the link,make monitor as the end of the government responsibility,responsible for "the project back to the government "link Scientific responsibility orientation will effectively improve the ability of the government to fulfill its responsibilities and the supply efficiency of basic public services;At the same time,the local government’s former and middle responsibilities will lose order and internal drive,and the end of the assessment responsibility is out of the question,which will reduce the supply efficiency of the equalization of basic public services for a long time.(2)According to the empirical research,from the regional level,the level and ability of local governments in the equalization of basic public services in China maintain the general order of East-Central-West.The difference between the eastern,central and western regions is far greater than that between the Central and western regions.In some links,the score of the western provinces has even exceeded that of the Central provinces.This shows that first,the administrative ability and experience of the governments of the developed eastern provinces in equalizing basic public services should be used for reference by the central and western provinces.Second,with the development of the West Development and the promotion of The Belt and Road,the provinces in the Central and western regions have made great progress in terms of economic foundation,governance ability and level.The western region has been gradually narrowing the gap with the central region,and the once inherent " eastern,central and western" pattern has begun to shake.From the perspective of government level and provincial level,provincial level governments represented by Jiangsu and Zhejiang take the lead in the total scores of policy formulation,resource planning,implementation,supervision and evaluation,followed by central and western regions.From the perspective of municipal and county-level governments,although the ranking of Eastern,Central and western regions has not changed greatly according to the total score of regions,the ranking of individual municipal and county-level governments is different from that of Eastern,central and western regions,which further confirms the above view,that is,the ruling ability,ruling level and basic public services of the eastern,central and western regions,especially the Western grassroots governments has been greatly improved,and it is reasonable that the future pattern and order will change.(3)According to the empirical findings,in general,local governments in China attach more importance to the end-responsibility of equalization of basic public services and perform well in the assessment and supervision fields,but the front-end and mid-end responsibilities,such as policy making and resource planning,need to be strengthened;The balance degree of local government’s performance quality can also be discussed from two aspects:region and level.At the regional level,on the whole,the heterogeneity of local governments’ accountability quality is not high in various regions of China,but there is a certain degree of difference between the quality of each accountability link.From the level of government,provincial and county governments have a large span in the balance,municipal governments have a good performance in the balance of the quality of performance,and provincial and county governments are weak.Combined with the fulfillment of the local government responsibilities quality index,we can judge,at present,the county government assumed responsibility for quality in the "low level","low balance"double low adverse situation,each link of the indicators are also larger room for improvement,grassroots governance system,it is necessary to reform the strengthen grassroots government management ability.(4)Through the empirical study,the urbanization level,regional economic development level,the government administrative ability and the degree of opening to the outside world,the government fiscal spending power and so on are different degree of influence the fulfillment of basic public services equalization responsibilities of local government level,the local government must attach great importance to the regional development factors on the influence of equal basic public services;At the same time,the starting point and foothold of the local government’s responsibility is "people",and demographic factors such as the educational structure,scale structure and age structure of the local population are also included in the scope of our examination.In this study,multiple regression analysis was used to test various potential influencing factors.It is found that the level of urbanization,the level of regional economic development and the degree of opening to the outside world in regional development factors and the population size and structure in population development factors have a significant impact on the quality of equal access to basic public services of local governments.(5)This study detects the influencing factors of local government’s equalization of basic public services from two aspects of regional development factors and population development factors,and combines the influencing factors of local government’s equalization of basic public services from the perspectives of "emphasis on expenditure mode","balanced development mode" and "comprehensive development mode".According to the results of empirical research,it is necessary to strengthen the governance level of grass-roots governments,refine the index responsibility,and comprehensively improve the link chain to improve the level of equalization of basic public services of local governments.At present,improving the governance ability and governance level of the grass-roots government is the key to improve the equalization of basic public service performance level of local governments in China.Therefore,starting from the grass-roots level,we should decentralize financial power while devolving power continuously,change the governance concept of the grass-roots government in combination with the actual situation,improve the governance ability of the grass-roots government,and take this as a breakthrough point to improve the overall level of the fulfillment of basic public service responsibilities of local government.Judging from the results of index evaluation,we should pay attention to the fulfillment of front-end responsibilities in the equalization of basic public services,so we should consolidate the links such as policy formulation and resource planning to avoid the phenomenon of "returning to the factory" and "resetting" of basic public services.From the aspect of local government’s responsibility fulfillment,we should complete the responsibility chain as a whole,improve the responsibility index of each link,and try our best to avoid the "barrel effect" in the process of government’s responsibility fulfillment.In short,according to the new policy documents issued continuously in recent years,it can be seen that the Party and the government have captured the most fundamental demands of the people keenly,and realized that improving people’s livelihood is the fundamental path to solve the current social contradictions.Since people’s livelihood is the biggest problem and the source and foundation of the government’s legitimacy,the equalization of basic public services has become the unshirkable responsibility of the government,especially the local government.In the field of equalization of basic public services,which links are local governments responsible for,which responsibilities are they responsible for,what is the status quo of the current exercise,what problems exist and how to improve,become the foothold of this study.The purpose of this study is to establish index of the equalization of basic public services of local governments in China,clarify the responsibilities of local governments and analyze the existing problems,so as to help realize the equalization of basic public services in China as soon as possible. |
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