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Bureaucracy And Autonomy: Government Decision - Making, Execution And Supervision

Posted on:2014-01-18Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Q B DuFull Text:PDF
GTID:1106330464461438Subject:Administrative Management
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The structural problem of triple powers of decision-making, implementation and supervision in department is a key problem that hinders the current Chinese reforms. We should theoretically explain the structure of triple powers and its process of improvement in foreign governments. The main aim of this dissertation is to analyze the universal theoretical principles and logics which are ’refracted’ in the structural form of triple powers and its process of improvement in those foreign countries, like U.K. and U.S.Bureaucracy is the basic form of the structural improvement of triple powers. In bureaucratic organization, the triple powers are distributed along the power line of hierarchy. Superiors have decision-making powers in hand, and inferiors execute superior decisions and accept the supervision by them. The structure of triple powers in bureaucracy is characterized as the mixture of triple powers in overall, the distinct gradation, and the centralization of decision-making and supervision powers.The autonomy is a key structural factor that affects the improvement of triple powers, the forging and development of agency autonomy is a crucial part of structural improvement of triple powers. Those autonomies occur in two main types: "implementation autonomy" and "decision-making autonomy". Implementation autonomy is in negative freedom sense. It means agencies have the power to be free from the excessive interference from other political powers or government departments and can make operational decisions about individual cases according to policy directives and laws. Decision-making autonomy is in positive freedom sense. It means agencies have the power granted by the superiors to formulate policies, or they have the power to put forward some policy suggestions which are not denied (not denied at least in most situations) by the superior.Based on the principal of "Statutory jurisdiction", inferiors have some implementation autonomy in bureaucracy, and have some factual autonomy in the exercising of powers, which forms the limited checks in the hierarchical structure. However, it is still a structure characterized as the strong decision-making and supervision powers and weak implementation autonomy. The power of supervision is performed by ways like rules restriction, hierarchical command, independent monitoring mechanism, auxiliary organ. The negative effects brought by the bureaucratic structure of triple powers, appeal to more inferior implementation autonomy. Giant departments with integration of the functions by merging departments, which is to overcome negative function of excessive separation in small departments, become the main incentive to stress the agency autonomy.The direct dynamic of the structural improvement of triple powers is constant development of functions, which formed two process of improvement. In order to overcome the negative function of the structure of triple powers in bureaucracy, the first process was caused by agency autonomy established in different principals and logics in the basic frame of giant department. I conclude these different principals and logics into three aspects:Marketization, independence, participation. Agencies based on marketization logic are aimed at getting over the inefficiency, inflexibility, irresponsibility and ossification of the triple powers structure in bureaucracy, and realized the separation of decision-making and implementation. Independent agencies and their implementation autonomy are aimed at preventing the professional principal from the influence of political and commercial power in the bureaucratic structure of triple powers. Independent agencies inside the government and ones outside the government in the new public management movement promoted the separation of decision-making and implementation in departments. There is no significant relation of decision-making and implementation between other independent agencies and departments. Agencies and their decision-making autonomy based on participation principal pushed forward the decentralization and moving-down of decision-making powers inside giant departments. It is a mode of limited decentralization with relevant institutional foundation, making possible the political participation of the interest groups and ordinary people in the background of pluralistic democracy.Various agencies autonomy has different ways to raise, like statute, delegation, contract, Structural separation. They also have various forms, index and functional and institutional conditions. They also need the giant department as the center of decision-making and supervision. The direct purpose of these agencies isn’t to adjust power structure, but they brought some changes of power structure indirectly. Therefore, their function of restricting powers is limited.Agencies and their decision-making and implementation autonomies, based on previous three principals, pushed on the structural adjustment of the triple powers. However, they brought about some new negative functions which caused the second process of the structural improvement of triple powers in departments. The executive agency model structure of triple powers made a further improvement, which reflected in autonomy network horizontally, and the hierarchical supervision and control over agencies autonomy by decision-making and supervision powers of core departments vertically. There are four types of power structure of combining hierarchy and networks—networks in hierarchies, co-exist of hierarchies and networks, hierarchies as the nodes of networks, and political hierarchy structure as hierarchical controlling mechanism. Mechanisms of combing hierarchy and network were realized in the process of exercising decision-making powers, implementation powers, decision-making powers in implementation, and supervision powers. Agencies and their resulting structure of triple powers, based on the principal of independence and participation, achieved some further improvements, which included that autonomous agencies join in and lead the policy issue networks horizontally, and the external and internal supervision mechanisms and structures vertically.The multiple compound structures are the result of the structure improvement of triple powers in departments. This multiple compound structure of triple powers combines those structural characters required from different logics and principles, and compounds some structural factors like synthesis and dispersion, centralization and decentralization, inferior freedom and superior authority, horizontal co-operation and vertical hierarchy. The mechanism of the multiple compound structures is integrated characteristic of practical rationality on one side, and the ability of structural improvement of triple powers in bureaucracy itself (i.e. the characteristic of two binary and ability of Structural transformation and self-adjustment in the structure of triple powers in bureaucracy itself).China’s governmental organizations and their shaping logic is similar with and corresponding to foreign countries’, while the power structure is different in a significantly way. It is that the centralized decision-making and supervision powers and the decentralized autonomy are both deficient. In our country, the agency autonomy has its own forms, such as the factual autonomy in the suggestion, the decision-making and implementation autonomy in the personalized supervision and control, the participation autonomy of internal agencies with Chinese characteristics. China’s giant department and its power structure in the changing present two forms: commonness and uniqueness, and create special achievements of triple powers structure with Chinese characteristics. Current problems in the process of merging departments in China rooted in the power structure.We should step from the "sub-giant department’to the "giant department" in the respects of the organization structure of giant department, in the basis of the comparative invariability and stability of current organizations. The giant department reform in our country needs the forging of decision-making and supervision powers center and distributed implementation and decision-making autonomy according to four principals, and carries forward the merging of autonomy network and hierarchy, finally achieves the multiple compound structure of triple powers.
Keywords/Search Tags:structure of triple powers, bureaucracy, autonomy, function, multiple compounds, giant department
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