The Research On The Role Oirentation And Behaviors Regulation Of Local Government In The Transformational Period

The high-speed development of Chinese economy has caught the world’sattention in the past thirty years. Of all the variables that can account for thisachievement, that of the local government is doubtlessly the one with greaterexplanatory power. Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that in non-economic fields, the roleplayed by the local government is far less lustrous than that in the economic field. Inthe transformational period, how to create a better environment for the localgovernment to better discharge its duties has become a focal point for researchers.The government role is the sum of behavior and its results of the governmentin the specific environment in the use of the powers to fulfill the responsibility. Theought-to-be role refers to the government role expected by the lawmaker or thesystem designers. The role that is refers to the government role as it is manifested inthe actual operation of the government. The role orientation of the government is theoverall features of the role of government. In essence, the role orientation of thegovernment is an overall generalization of the government action and involvesmultiple factors such as governmental functions, powers and responsibilities. It is anumbrella term that is wide-ranging, rich in connotation and highly associative.The present role of the local government is the product of given systems. Underthe planned economy, the local government had almost no independent profitstructure and was basically the auxiliary and execution organ of the centralgovernment. Its role orientation is that of a “dependent personality”. The economictransformation of the society has brought about far-reaching changes in theinstitutional environment of the local government. The incentive and managementsystem of officials, the fiscal management system, the isomorphic responsibilitybetween different levels of governments, and the supervisory mechanism over thelocal government by the central government will become the most important factorsthat influence the local government in the period of transformation. Since thebeginning of the transformational period, the central government has tried to deal with the difficult situations and variables with a strategic combination of “control anddelegation of authority”, the latter of which is meant to revitalize the localgovernment and unlock its potentials. The central government does not expect thelocal government to play the role of “dependent personality” by being a mereexecution and auxiliary organ. It expects the local government to blaze a new path inall fields, especially in the economic field, by taking initiatives and boldlyexperimenting with all possibilities for development, and to lay a solid foundationand accumulate experience for overall reform.“Control” refers to the control overeconomic performance, the pace of reform and ideology, so as to safeguard theoverall interests and the authority of the central government.“Control” means that thelocal government cannot take on the role of completely autonomous “independentpersonality”. In ideology, economic performance and institutional system, the localgovernment has to submit to the strict control of the central government. Overall,under the dual influences of political centralization and economic deregulation, thelocal government takes on the role orientation of “non-independent personality”.The role orientation of the local government as “non-independent personality”entails its non-independence as an entity, the contradictory nature of its motivationand the non-coordination of its role influence. While this kind of role orientationplays an active role in fulfilling the historical task of a certain period, it also spellspotential trouble for the current and future economic and social development. Thepresent dissertation proposes the generalization of this state of affairs as inequilibrium and non-coordination. With the super-strong stimulus from the centralgovernment, the local government always attempts to use the relegated power andresources from the central government at places where achievements the centralgovernment expects to see are most easily accomplished. Therefore, it becomes arational choice for it to accomplish certain objectives to the neglect of others. If thelocal government keeps adopting this course of action, the coordinated developmentof the whole society will be in danger of becoming an illusive dream.When the social and political fundamentals change, the “non-independentpersonality” of the local government will become the principal contradiction of acertain period of time and constitute impediment to the further development of the economy and society. Once all of its historical limitations are fully revealed, it will bereplaced by a higher social form. If it can be said that at the initial period of thetransformation, the improvement in social welfare gave a certain measure oflegitimacy to the local government’s pursuit of economic performance assisted bysuper-strong stimulus, then with the deepening of the socio-economic transformation,its imbalanced development strategy that pursues economic development to theneglect of everything else will gradually undermine this legitimacy instead ofstrengthening it until it reaches the end of the road. The passivity and limitationpossessed by the ‘non-independent personality” of the local government means that itis only transitional and temporary. Therefore, the period of socio-economictransformation will witness the return of the local government from “non-independentpersonality” to “independent personality”.The behavior of the local government can be modified from the angles ofgovernmental system and process in order to promote the rational return to its properrole. When the “multi-center small-loop” type of local government system is adopted,care must be taken to ensure the smooth transition from the periphery to the center inthe administrative system reform, especially at the critical point of power transfer soas to prevent the phenomenon of “power void”.Counter-measures at the present stageinclude gradually weakening the super-strong stimulus to GDP-oriented growth of thelocal government, strengthening the influence the local people can exert over thebehavior of the local government, reforming and perfecting the operating mode ofpower of the local government etc.