Building The Pattern Of The Relationship Among Local Governments In Regional Ocean Governance

With the projection of the strategic position of the ocean,marine services will face the new challenge.The coastal countries have to perfect or establish ocean administration system with their own national characteristics.In the present ocean administration system in China,coastal local governments perform a significant portion of the specific marine management functions.But as we all know,the ocean is flowable,with cross-regional characteristics,so the local governments need to cooperate in regional public affairs,which depend on the coordinated development of the relationship among local governments,particularly among local governments which has no administrative relationship.Due to the inadequate related systems,there have been various problems on the cooperation of local governments,affecting the scientific and effective management of ocean.Therefore,the study on the horizontal coordination among local governments is of practical value as well as of the theoretical significance.This paper,based on public management theory and new institutional economics theory,does the empirical research on the existing problems,the existing treatment, the existing progress as well as the new way of governance in the horizontal coordination among local governments through comparative study,case study, document study,etc.This study shows that:the effective and systematic design of the system is the only way to improve the performance of horizontal relations among the local governments;the existing governance mechanisms can solve some problems, but they have not achieved the desired goal because of its inherent flaws; inter-organizational networks,a new type of mechanisms of governance,have a comparative advantage;practice shows the importance of integrated use of a variety of governance mechanisms,and a good institutional environment and regulating the management of local governments are indispensable.The conclusions of this paper are:Contemporary regional ocean management in the coordination of horizontal relations among the local governments in China should make comprehensive use of a variety of governance mechanisms.It is necessary to vary governance mechanisms according to different conditions.Eventually,building a good systematic environment and perfecting local government management are needed to improve the performance of management.