The Evolution Track Of The Provision Of Public Goods In America

The provision of public goods in America has gone through a process that the market supply transformed to the government supply, and then went back to the market supply. From the experience, the provision subject of public goods includes government, market, and non-profit organization, and the government and the market play the leading role subsequently. Then why the provision of public goods in America experienced such an evolution track? Which factors contributed to the changes of the provision of public goods in America? The paper researched the evolution track of the provision of American public goods. Around its dynamic mechanism of the evolution process as logic clue, the paper studied the practical experience, the operation mechanism, performance and the problems during different periods of the provision of American public goods. It helps to clarify the role of the government and the market in supply of public goods to inquire the evolution regulations of the provision of American public goods. Such inquire can provide a powerful explanation for today's global government administrative reform, which centered on the changes of the structure and the means of the provision of public goods. Moreover, this study provides meaningful experiences for Chinese reform of the provision of public goods.Government, market and commonweal organizations are all the provision subjects of public goods. During different stages in America, the roles of the different subjects are different, which shaped the evolution tract of the provision of public goods. The changes of the relationship among the different subjects can be said to be the external performance of the evolution track, and the economic cultural and social factors constitute its internal driving mechanism.This paper mainly carried on such research: (1) Based on the predecessors'research results, the paper summarized the theory of the provision of public goods. (2) Referred to the social and economic historical literature, the paper found out the practical experience data of the provision of public goods in America. (3) The paper studied the governmental reform and analyzed the status of American provision of public goods. (4) The paper put forward a function of public goods supply, so as to seek for the internal dynamic mechanism of the evolution track of the provision of public goods in America. The text is composed of the introduction, five chapters and tag:Introduction first sets forth the background and significances of this study, and then makes a scan of the evolutionary track of the provision of public goods in America. Finally, it gives a brief statement of the paper's structure on the basis of defining the main concept of this paper.The first chapter is the statement of the provision theory of public goods. Firstly, it describes the theory of the government supply public goods. Previous to 1950s, the mainstream views of the political and economic insisted that the provision of public goods is specific to the basic functions of government. Public goods that met the social public needs should and could only be provided by the government. The second Section describes the theory of the market supply public goods. From 1950s, some scholar, such as R.H.Coase and J.M.Buchanan, who is one of representative of the theory of public choice, expounded that the market's supply of public goods. R.H.Coase took the light tower as example and analyzed the feasibility of market supply. The public choice theory completely overturned the traditional theory of the government supply, and affirmed that the provision of public goods should make most of the market. The third Section discussed the diversified development of the provision theory of public goods in recent years. At last it proposes a function of the provision of public goods.Chapter 2 discussed the provision of public goods before The New Deal in America. During this period, due to the impact of laissez-faire thoughts and cultural traditions, in addition to limited financial income, the provision of public goods mainly depended on the market. Not only the semi- public goods mainly provided by the private sectors or commonweal organizations, but the private sectors get involved in the pure public goods. The role of government is of secondary importance. By granting lands to private companies, providing loans and other indirect means, the government provided some kind of public goods indirectly. The government provided small amount of public education and social relief directly. Because the purpose of the private sectors is making profits, a lot of abuse came about in the field of public goods lacking of government monitoring.Chapter 3 discussed the provision of public goods from The New Deal to the late 1970s in America. It is the period that the government supply expanded on a large scale. The scale and the structure of the provision of public goods changed completely. Government not only provided directly construction, education, medical care and other public goods, but also established social security and provided complete security and welfare. Government provided public goods directly by the means of founding state enterprises, public utilities, public agencies and intergovernmental agreements and so on. The expansion of government supply public goods improved people's life, at the same time it brought the government the fiscal crisis, confidence crisis, and the decline of social and economic development momentum.Chapter 4 discussed the market-oriented reform of the provision of public goods since the 1980s in America. In the 1970s, the stagflation and the financial crisis of the welfare state forced the USA government began implement the market-oriented reform. The market-oriented reform in America was provided with the institutional, economic and technical feasibility. The modes of the reform are Contracting Out, Franchises, Voucher and User Fees. The market provision of public goods reduced the fiscal pressure, and improved the performance. But it's not perfect, which the corruption and damage to the interests of consumers went along with the reform process.Chapter 5 discussed the provision of public goods by the voluntary affairs mechanism in America. The subjects of voluntary supply include individuals and organizations. This chapter expounded the theory, dynamic mechanism, practical experiences and mode of operation of the voluntary provision of public goods in America. Voluntary provision of public goods in America experienced a long history and developed perfectly, which was in relation to the developed economic and culture tradition of America. It was the result of the government policy as well as. The operation mechanisms of the voluntary supply of public goods included donation, volunteer service and charge service. The voluntary provision of public goods can make up the lack of the government provision and the market provision and meet people's various public needs. But constrained by the economic factors, the effect of the voluntary provision is limited. At the same time, the non-profit organization was faced to the commercial problem. The tag summarized some useful references to Chinese reform of public goods, according to the analysis of the evolution track of the provision of public goods in America.