Public Service’s Attributes And The Selection Of Its Supply Mechanism

Providing public services is not only a concrete form in which the government ensures and improves people’s livelihood,but also an important way for the government to optimize its own organizational governance.The former is directly related to the improvement of people’s happiness and satisfaction,while the latter has a profound impact on the effectiveness of national governance and the promotion of Chinese path to modernization.Since the 18th CPC National Congress,China has accelerated the transformation of government functions,deepen reform in streamlining administration and delegating power,improving regulation,and upgrading services,strengthened the functions of social management and public service,and continuously promoted the high-quality development of public services to meet the diverse service needs of the public and their yearning for a better life.Especially in recent years,with the advent of the era of risk society and big data,opportunities and challenges coexist in the effective supply of public services.On the one hand,the rapid development of new technologies,such as big data and cloud computing,has profoundly changed the mode of public service provision.On the other hand,the emergence of wicked problem,such as COVID-19,has increased the difficulty of identifying the characteristics of public services.In such context,how to choose appropriate supply mechanisms for different types of public services,so as to realize the effective supply of public services,has become an important issue for the government.As a matter of fact,the selection of public service supply mechanism is a classic and controversial issue in the theoretical world.A large amount of literature has discussed the factors affecting the selection of supply mechanism from the aspects of supply subject,demand subject,supply environment,and supply content,but the relevant research results have rarely reached a consensus and cannot be well used to guide the government’s supply practice.From the perspective of government supply,the choice of public service supply mechanism is essentially an organizational decisionmaking problem triggered by products and services.Therefore,going back to the beginning of the problem,the attribute of products and services produced by the organization is precisely the initial "information" that cannot be ignored.In view of this,this study focuses on public services as the content of provision and its own attributes,and tries to bring the thinking of the selection of public service supply mechanism back to the logical starting point,that is,to explore what kind of provision mechanisms should be chosen by the government for different types of public services in the ideal state.This study aims to answer the following questions: what are the important attributes of public services? what are the main types of supply mechanisms? what kind of ideal supply mechanism should be adopted for public services with different attributes? How to identify and test the influence of public service attributes on the selection of supply mechanism in the practice of public service provision?In order to answer the above questions,this study first defines the connotation of public service,public service attributes and supply mechanism,and introduces relevant theories.On this basis,following the general idea of "critical construction-empirical test-summary and reflection",it mainly carries out two aspects.The first is to introduce the basic viewpoints of the existing analytical framework,identify the shortcomings of the framework,and build a new analytical framework on this basis.In Chapter 2,This study introduces the analysis framework of "Collaboration-Economies of scale" proposed by scholars from the perspective of "Production".In order to address the shortcomings of this analytical framework,this study introduces the concept of "Emergency" in Chapter3,and systematically constructs a theoretical framework of "Collaboration-Economy of scale-Emergency" based on existing theories and relevant empirical research.At the same time,it proposes the prerequisite assumptions and related hypotheses for the study of public service attributes and supply mechanisms.The second is to conduct empirical research to explore the explanatory power of the new theoretical framework,and summarize and reflect on the research findings.In Chapter 4 and 5,this study selects two national public service supply cases-the prevention and control of the COVID-19 in China and the classification of urban domestic waste,carries out comparative analysis between and within cases,discusses the differences and similarities of relevant public services in attributes and supply mechanisms.In Chapter 6,this study theoretically sublimates the findings of relevant empirical research and reflects on the assumptions underlying the research.The empirical research shows that the theoretical framework of "Collaboration-Economies of scale-Emergency" has certain valid explanatory for the empirical phenomena related to public service supply.The basic viewpoints of this study are as follows: firstly,to explore the classic problem of how different types of public services can be effectively supplied,a basic and primary task is to distinguish and analyze the different attributes of public services.Secondly,according to the principle that "production and provision can be separated",after clarifying the responsibility of the government for providing public services,the main issue regarding the selection of public service supply mechanism is a specific execution of how public services are "produced".Therefore,compared to publicity,"consumption attribute",and "transaction attribute","production attribute" focuses on the characteristics of public services in the production process,and is more suitable as a logical starting point for analyzing the selection of supply mechanism.Thirdly,the "production attribute" and supply mechanism of public services have rich connotations.The former includes three attributes: collaboration,economies of scale,and emergency.The latter is divided into decentralized supply mechanism with diverse participation,centralized supply mechanism with professional technology,and centralized supply mechanism with administrative mobilization.Fourthly,in an ideal supply state,matching different attributes with specific supply mechanisms of public services can achieve effective supply of public services.However,it is necessary to note that the selection of public service supply mechanisms in practice may be influenced by multiple factors,and it is necessary to strengthen the government’s "rational" decisionmaking,enhance understanding of public service attributes,and improve the supply capacity of the supply subject.The aforementioned findings may provide possible directions for further theoretical research on the effective supply of public services.At the same time,it may also provide some inspiration for improving the supply practices of related public services.