Governance And Good Governance: A Research On Local Government Credibility

It is a period of social transition for China. Politics, economics, culture, and society are changing fundamentally in every way such as enhance of citizen awareness and a spring of civil society. Those affect the developing directions and patterns of our country positively as well as expose a lot of problems such as credit crisis of the whole society especially the government credibility, which badly cramped the stabilization and development of China. Facing the opportunities and challenges, it is complex and urgent for local governments about how to catch, choose and change. This thesis tries to discuss how the local government credibility crisis emerge in China and how to deal with it against a background that civil society has sprang and governance and good governance have become an inevitable choice.There are a lot of events exposed the low level of local government credibility. Some social investigations also reveal that decline of local government credibility has affected local governance. As communication bridges between central government and the public, local governments is the agency that directly manage the local affairs as well as the medium that carry out the central government's policies. Local governments are the direct managers and leaders in local, which has a close association to local citizens. Local government credibility has direct relation with local government's legitimacy, authority, ability of policy enforcement, and even local prosperity, stability, levels and effects of local governance. So local government credibility is a very important soft power, and we should take immediate measures to rebuild it.The roots of China's local government credibility crisis are that in a period of social transition, institutions and systems are not perfect yet, and that there are not unified prevailing values and ethics. They result in a lack of government credit and a reduction of public trust, and finally, the decline of local government credibility. To rebuild local government credibility, we should comply with the trend of the civil society, accelerate the reformation of political system, straighten every relationship, optimize the policy process, standardize the government behavior, change our thought, and enhance cooperation with public and social organization. Only in those ways should we move towards good governance and harmonious society.