Study Of Decision-Making Of Public Service Contracting In US’s Local Governments

With the coming of marketization and socialization reforms, the takeover of production of all public services by local governments hasn’t been increasingly meeting social needs. As one of competitive market measures introduced into public sector, public service contracting is anticipated to accomplish the historical tasks of cutting governmental scope, reducing costs, and strengthening the cooperation between the public and the private from the very start. Actually, it has achieved huge success in those aspects, which is the very reason why local governments favors it. Since our nation is on the stage of starting contracting reform of public services, how to comprehensively plan its all activities looming prospered has become the problem supposed to be tackled by researches on contracting decision. Because the contracting reforms of American localities have such characteristics as starting early, diverse mechanisms, great scale, and wide coverage, and also because American scholars penetrate comprehensively and profoundly into theoretical studies and positive studies, America have accumulated rich reform experiences and research achievement, which can be critically applied into our country’s contracting practice.Building on Institutional Analysis and Development framework created by Elinor Ostrom and other scholars, the thesis analyzes the problems, process, and factors of decision-making of public services contracting by America’s local governments, and summarizes their successful experiences to the advantage of reference by our services contracting reforms.The First Chapter: Introduction. After collaborating research background and significance, and reviewing studies at home and abroad on public services contracting, the thesis introduces the main theme, methodology, and frame of. this research.The Second Chapter: The analytical concepts and theories of decision-making of public services contracting in America’s local governments. By making clear the concepts of local government, public services contracting, and its decision-making, the thesis holds that the decision-making of public service contracting mainly decides two problems, namely production mode selection and sector choice. After briefing main points of IAD Framework, the thesis summarizes that the IAD framework fits wells with the analysis of contracting decision.The Third Chapter: Institutional analysis of selection of production mode of public services in America’s local governments. In the perspective of IAD framework, the thesis analyzes the production mode choice situation and its main factors, such as attributes of a service, financial state, level of common understanding, citizens’ preferences, competition in service supply market, the structure of power in local government, and rules-in-use. Of the factors, service attributes decides which a service is better produced by in-house or by contracting out. Fiscal factors are always the driving force of local governments’decision to contract out. Citizens’ preference and governmental power structure influence their attitude toward contracting out, and rule-in-use is the institutional factor acting upon decision situation.The Fourth Chapter: Institutional analysis of contracting sector choice in public services contracting by America’s local governments. After analyzing the actors affecting the sector choice situation, the author finds out that service attributes influence a service is better contract out to and a government agency, for-profit firm, or nonprofit organization, and that where a local government is influences the competition of service supply market. A contract is more probably awarded to another government agency or nonprofit organization than to a private firm because of public concern, and a competitive supply market decides the possibility of reduced contracting costs, and due to different characteristics of three sectors, local governments prefers one to another in the sector choice. Rules-in-use and institutional arrangements are the hidden rules that bear on choice situation.The Fifth Chapter: Discuss of detailed process and factors of production mode selection and contracting sector choice by taking Managed Competition program selection in the City of San Diego and WTW contracting in the County of San Diego for example.The Sixth Chapter:Conclusion of successful experiences of decision-making of public services contracting in America’s local governments. With the analysis of experiences and main problems, the thesis proposes some advices for reference for public services contracting reforms in local governments in China.