A Study On The Rise Of Guide-Oriented Government Function Model

Issue of Government Function (GF) and Government Function Model (GFM),which is a hot topic in the field of Public Administration and Political Science, draws increasing attention in terms of Governance of Human Society (GHS). This dissertation aims to map the evolution of GFM through analyzing GFM in context of the history of GHS. Research objectives determine research methods. This dissertation is guided by reflective interpretation of historicism. We analyzed the rise of Guide-Oriented Government Function Model (GOGFM), a wholly new GFM initially formed in new industry countries in Asia and further developed in China, to conclude scientific concept and theorem historically and logically for the reform of public administration in China.There are three types of governance, including rule, management, and service, which are dominated by Rule-Oriented Government (ROG), Manage-Oriented Government (MOG), and Service-Oriented Government (SOG), respectively, during history of GHS if we classify human history into three eras, as Agricultural Society, Industrial Society, and Post-Industrial Society.The nature of ROG in agricultural society is "Dynasty", which means GFM is used for class ruling. This kind of GFM is a tool for ruling class to protect their interests and has characteristic of "Chaos". In other words, there is no other function differentiated from the GFM. The reason is that economy and politics are not specialized in independent field in agricultural society, however,"patriarchal" system requires the governance of society using power.In a word, the governance system in agricultural society is a mixture of ruling and managing, and ruling process and managing process are one and the same one. Since specialization of government function is the premise of the rise of function model, there is no issue of GFM, but only a class ruling function of dynasty, or ROG.In early modern era, western countries entered industrial society by firstly running market economy and implementing industrial revolution.Industrial society is characterized by quick specialization in almost every area, such as specialization in industry and agriculture, specialization in politics and economy, specialization in science and production, specialization in different human groups, etc. Modern social governance model developed in structure and function with social specialization and process of social development, while "Chaos" characteristic of class ruling function was also separated into self-management and multi-fields social management of government. Of course, although "structural break" of progress in history can existed in some specific historical events, there is no such kind of "break" in logic. It was a long transformation from class ruling function to social management function, and the model of social management function was not established until the transformation reached a "qualitative change" point. Moreover, this establishment changed the nature of government from ROG to MOG.There are two representative kinds of Manage-Oriented GFM in history:one is the Protection-Oriented GFM (POGFM);the other is the Intervention-Oriented GFM (IOGFM). POGFM treats government as a "protecting person" or "night watchman" and believes that market mechanism is the best for resource allocation. POGFM is the product of liberal capitalism which gradually formed with economic development in western market economy countries. This style was destroyed and phased out due to the economic crisis during1929-1933. Faced with market failure, government should change to cope with it. Thus, a thought of government interventionism was popular with the rise of the IOGFM. This GFM was designed by macroeconomists represented by Keynesian to improve and stabilize market economy and sustainable economic growth by fiscal and monetary policies.The IOGFM was widely accepted by western developed countries from1930s to1970s. However, economies of all these countries turned to stagnation with high inflation and low economic growth at the end of1960s and the beginning of1970s, especially after the oil crisis in1973. Stagnation indicates government failure, suggesting that government has limited capacity in correcting market failure. Moreover, critics throw critical reflections on IOGFM and its theoretical foundation--Keynesian. New liberalism, such as monetary school, public choice school, new institutional school, rational expectation school, proposed to limit and even cancel government interventions to make market running more effectively. This thought was advocated by the practices, which was represented by New Public Management Movement (NPMM).NPMM was not a rise of new GFM, but only a pragmatism tendency of random choice between the POGFM and IOGFM.When human society walked out of the low complexity and low uncertainty industrial society, the random choice was exposed its shortcomings.Therefore, even NPMM was implemented successfully in western countries in the late twentieth century; they would be still falling into unknown direction, like their panic after the financial crisis in2008.At the time of putschism in western countries, prosperity appeared in eastern countries. Asian new industrial countries, represented by Asian Four-Small Dragons (AFSD), created a third way on GFM with rapid economic growth and gave the above POGFM and IOGEM a big blow. There are lots of studies on the third way in1980s and1990s, such as modernization theory, dependency theory, developmental state theory, neo-classical theory, the market enhancement theory, and mutual governance theory. Through critical review on these theories and examination on practice of the third way, we conclude that:the so-called the third way, which belongs to moving closer to GOGFM, is an innovation of GFM in their institutional framework of MOG in Asian new industrial countries. Regretfully, because there is seldom theory on GOGFM from practice, such Asian countries were forced to give up this innovation under the pressure of western theory after successful economic growth. It means that the practice of GOGFM would be abrupt end in Asian industrial countries. The good news is that Chinese government developed GOGFM consciously in social and economic development. When Chinese government implemented GOGFM in the end of1970s, there was great boom, especially in economy, leading China to a world-class strong economic country in less than30years. The great achievements in economic, social, and other aspects of China’s reform and opening up are closely related to the implementation of GOGFM. It is hard to imagine what would have happened today if Chinese government had not adopted GOGFM.There are three factors playing useful roles in the rapid economic development in AFSD.The first one is that they were building national and regional goals to catch up with developed countries. The second one is that these countries and regions had special political and economic relationships with western developed countries, which were urgent to expand new markets for their surplus capital. The third one is that western countries wanted to foster new Asian countries to curb the "Oriental" power in the times of Cold War. There is only the first factor at the time of China’s reform and opening up. The starting point of China’s reform is the transformation of human society--a rise of globalization and post-industrialization, so that it is impossible for China to set a catching-up objective. Therefore, the developmental environments have changed a lot with more social complexity and higher uncertainty. AFSD’s way, although carefully studied by Chinese government, was not suitable for China under such great transformation, because Chinese government should achieve double historical tasks, industrialization and post-industrialization, not only industrialization for AFSD.The GOGFM plays a significant role in Chinese social and economic development under this special historical condition. Contributions of GOGFM are:firstly, in economic area, the institutionalization of leadership and an ingenious cooperative system between politics and business, the making of strategic planning, the formation of "all directions, big opening" strategic development pattern, and the financial system under modern fire fence. Secondly, in social area, the implementation of policies related with improvement of people’s welfare, the construction of spirit civilization and ecological civilization, the establishment of social stabilization system, and the cultivation of social organization. Moreover, China’s GOGFM evidently reflects government reform, especially in the end of1990s, when the emerging of theory of SOG helped Chinese government transform to SOG. We could conclude that GOGFM embodies and belongs to SOG, if we examine the relation in "subject--function" framework.It is important to clarify that GOGFM is only an achievement in practice both in AFSD and in China, and has not been supported by theoretical proof. Theoretical work on GOGFM is important and necessary since the practice would be neglected soon. AFSD’s giving up of GOGFM under western pressure is a good example on this point. Chinese government is also facing similar problem, especially that GOGFM in China is at cross road, from unbalance state generated by over-emphasis on economy and less-emphasis on society to balance growth. There are two possibilities under this condition:giving up GOGFM or concluding and improving GOGFM. We prefer the latter choice to theorize GOGFM. Let GFM theorized in the sense of social governance, it could be summarized as: GOGFM is a wholly new GFM facing post-industrial society, promoting SOG and guiding scientific development of the society consciously.Overall, this dissertation critically interpreted GOGFM in the context of historical development of social governance and extended perspectives for studying GF and GFM to build a theory about GF and GFM fulfilling economic and social development in the process of post-industrialization. Our settings are:GOGFM is a special GFM of SOG; the construction of GOGFM consciously has tight relationship and interaction with SOG. With the development of globalization and post-industrialization, every innovation in China could affect the world. Achievements in theoretical construction of GOGFM will positively impact the world and contribute to the progress of human society, especially the progress of GHS.