Institutional Arrangements For Constructing A Responsible Government

In a period of accelerated social development and transformation, the Chinese government is facing many new problems and challenges arising from in and outside China. Constructing "responsible government" is the requirement not only to deal with the complicated internal and external environments, but also to strengthen the government’s self-construction and enhance the government’s public administration and public service capacity. This dissertation is designed to probe into key problems with institutional arrangements for constructing a responsible and accountable government in order to explore institutional routes towards a government conscientiously shouldering due responsibilities and functioning efficiently.Currently, China is at a critical time for economic and social transformation. With coexistence and operation of both the old and the new system, there are inevitably frictions and even conflicts, leading up to dysfunction of the public power and shortage of responsibilities of the government, harming political, economic and social life, and causing disorder and confusion in pubic administration and public service Provision. Undoubtedly, the asymmetry and inconsistency between responsibility and power are not resolved effectively, the old system might return, the new one might die an early death, and more seriously, the authority of the government might shake and social turbulence might occur., So construction of a responsible government is the need for political, economic, and social development, and a necessary requirement of developing socialist democratic politics and strengthening public administration and provision of public services. Therefore, to probe into key problems with institutional arrangements for constructing a responsible and accountable government is of both practical and theoretical meaningfulness.Along with continuous economic and social reforms, the reform of the administrative system has also been continuously advancing, with noticeable achievements in shifting the role of the government, with the basic role of the market in allocating resources markedly strengthened, the government’s capacity of social management and public service provision further improved, the organization of the government and age structure of public servants gradually optimized, and the government’s policy decision-making quality continuously improved. Overall, the administrative system in China can basically meet the requirement of economic and social development, and has guaranteed the opening-up, reform and the socialist modernization drive. Nevertheless, this system still has many malpractices that hinder economic and social development. Particularly, the dislocation as well as poor performance of the government’s responsibilities remains an obstacle to the consummation of the socialist market economic system and a strong resistance to various reforms. Therefore, strengthening the construction of a responsible government is imperative.This dissertation, applying research methods such as comparative analysis, literature review, qualitative and quantitative analysis, etc., begins with a brief presentation of the economic and social background for constructing a responsible government, and demonstrates that construction of a responsible government is an integral part of reforming the public administration system, an important reflection of modern civilization and a need for the development of the society and rule of law. Secondly, it discusses the theoretical and logic starting point, basic areas, essential characteristics and systematic configuration of, and basic principles for, constructing a responsible government. On this basis, it summarizes the institutional arrangements and main trends of, main routes towards, and important experience in constructing a responsible government both at home and abroad. Then, it systematically analyzes the laws and regulations, supervision institutions, system of accountability, institutions for make the administration procedures transparent, institutions for performance appraisal, rewards and penalty institutions, institutions for the supervision by the media, and reforms of the mechanisms for the operations of the administration power, that are required to construct a responsible government. Based on the above analysis, the dissertation comes up with recommendations on how to build up a series of institutions for constructing a responsible government, how to consummate the system for appraising the performance of the government after an analysis of the problems in the current system for appraising the government’s performance as well as their causes; and how to improve and strengthen the supervision by the media after an analysis of the unique role the media has played in supervising the government. Thus far, many scholars from home and abroad have studied the topic of constructing a responsible government. By learning from other research outcomes, this dissertation tries to innovate in two aspects. The first is to put the study in the macroscopic context of economic transition and social transformation in China. And the second is to focus on an institutional framework that can ensure the building-up of a responsible framework. For, it is believed that, though construction of a responsible government involves many factors and conditions, institutional building-up is the most fundamental and far-reaching, and determines the overall progress. Constructing a responsible government has to be based on institutional and systematic design and construction.