A Study On The Transformation And Orientation Of The Relationship Between The Central Government And The Localities

Relationships between central and local government, deeply rooted in every social institution, impact important issues such as state reunification, national unity, economic development and social stability. Public services that a government provides are core issues concerning the role of government under market conditions, the implementation of governmental functions and the fundamentals of theory and practice for enhancing economic growth and social development. In the contemporary world, public services cannot be solely provided by one level of government. Rather, they have to be functioned through the distributed and shared work of different layers of government. With increased social and economic development, citizens'demands for public services have become ever complex and diverse. Government cannot just regard unevenly a certain aspect of public services, but rather provide comprehensive quality services with the goal of equalizing the public service system. These are challenges to the relationships between Chinese central government and the localities. Therefore, it is of both political and theoretical significance to research these relationships from the angle of public services.Guided by Marxist political theory and the theory of harmonious society, this thesis employs prescriptive and empirical methods, historical and comparative methods to undertake a systematic, thorough analysis and exploration of the transformation and orientation of the relationships between Chinese central government and the localities, deeply rooted in the country's actual conditions and the construction of socialist modernization.The thesis is divided into six parts: the Introduction, four chapters and the Conclusion.The Introduction depicts the background and theme of the research, delineating and analyzing key concepts, research status quo both in and outside China and the methodology of this research concerning the transformation and orientation of the relationships between Chinese central government and the localities from the angle of public services.Chapter One reviews, by employing the method of historical analysis, the transformation process of the central government and the localities since the founding of New China. The chapter divides this process into three stages: highly centralized relationship between the central and the local, decentralized and benefit-sharing relationship and initial formation of politically centralized and economically decentralized relationship, then anatomizes the state, features and cause of these three stages and their impact upon provision of public services. It also attempts to detail how these relationships have influenced effective supply of public services and our various hierarchies of government, because of their limitations, cannot bring into full play the offering of well-balanced public services for the citizens.Chapter Two uses the method of comparative analysis to examine the situation of the similar unitary type of countries: Britain, France and Japan, their characteristics and their impact on the provision. Experience and lessons are extracted to serve as examples beneficial to the reorganization of the relationship between Chinese central government and the local governments with the goal of equalizing public services.Chapter Three, by means of an empirical analysis, anatomizes the challenge that the complexity of demands for public services has brought about, with the findings of three causes that make the Chinese government's equalization of public services impossible: oversimplification of public service functions, monotonousness of performance evaluation and unevenness of financial revenue and expenditure.Chapter Four explores future orientation of Chinese central government the localities and holds the view that the goal is to equalize public services, the basic mode is to integrate political centralization and economic decentralization, and the channel is to renew the administrative philosophy of the governments at various levels, transform and strengthen their functions, enhance the legality between the central and the local, perfect performance evaluation indicator systems and straighten out the financial relationship between the central government and the various hierarchies.The Conclusion summarizes the core points of the thesis, and expounds the significance of its innovation.This thesis employs"basic public services-economic public services-social public services"as an analytical tool to formulate a theoretical framework of the relationship between central and local government from the perspective of public services. It possesses certain degree of innovativeness and exploratory value. The goal of equalizing public services, the basic mode of integrating political centralization and economic decentralization, and the five fundamental channels that the thesis has put forward are well focused and operable.