Basic Public Service Of Nationaliy Autonomous County Government

Since the21st century, China has made great achievements in economic construction, while at the same time, a series of social contradictions and problems gradually came to the surface, one of which is that the growing demand for public service has not been satisfied. The shortage of some basic public services, in particular, has caused many social problems and had serious influences on the development and harmony of society. In response, Chinese central government has gradually increased investment in public service to establish and perfect the basic public service (BPS) system.As local administrative agencies, governments of ethnic autonomous counties play an important role in the regional BPS system. According to the standards, policies and regulations made by central and provincial governments on BPS, the county governments are responsible for the provision of public services and supervision of public service agencies. In fact, the relation between the higher-level governments and the county governments is a trust agency one since the latter are authorized and supervised by the former to provide public services.Because of the different pursuit of interests, and information asymmetry between higher governments and county government, it is not necessarily the case that the county governments can effectively reach the goals set by the higher-level governments by playing a good role as the practical provider of public services. As a result, this paper begins with analyzing the relationship between governments of the two levels, i.e. the higher-level governments and the autonomous county governments, attempting to, based on data collected through field studies, explore problems in the autonomous county governments providing Basic public services. Higher-level governments authorize autonomous county governments to arrange the provision of basic public services. To achieve this, one of the essentials is that the authorized governments be financially capable of providing necessary basic services. The other is the authorizing governments must act as effective supervisors to make sure that the county governments accomplish the exact goals set by the higher-level governments. So, the paper would discuss the effectiveness of the financial guarantee mechanism of the county governments and the supervision mechanism of the higher-level governments. On this basis, the paper will further seek to find ways to improve the public services provided by the autonomous county governments.After studying Chinese financial and taxation system, inter-government relationships, separation of duties among governments in BPS, and the supervision and assessment system of BPS, the paper believes that it is, under the present financial and taxation system and due to their limited financial power, impossible for the county governments to take on their duties as provider of basic public services. Therefore, they have to rely on the strong financial support from the higher-level governments. As for the supervision system, apart from a top-down assessment system built by just a few BPS programs, which has constrained the governments in conducting their duties to some degree, no comprehensive supervision and assessment system has been specially established for the higher-level governments to effectively supervise the autonomous county governments. Due to a lack of financial guarantee and an effective supervision system, the county governments have difficulty fulfilling their duties, which practically has a negative impact on the realization of the goals set by the higher-level governments to promote BPS in ethnic areas. This belief is proved by the field studies conducted in L County in Yunnan Province. It is found, from the field studies, that finance and supervision remain to be the most prominent problems in the process where the county governments provide basic public services by the requirement of the higher-level governments. In finance, the county government relies heavily on the higher-level governments’transfer payment. If the current financial system remains the same, it can be expected that the county government is unlikely to act as the liability subject in providing basic public services. In supervision, the county government is virtually an agent of the higher-level governments, which is completely responsible for the provision of basic public services. Meanwhile, it alone has to supervise a lot other agencies concerned. However, the higher-level governments have not yet established a perfect and special supervision system. The traditional top-down supervision does not seem to work in an effective way.To further improve the BPS in ethnic areas and achieve the goals set by the higher-level governments, the paper suggests, on the condition that the relationship between the higher-level governments and the autonomous governments keeps unchanged, it would be a practical move to ensure that the county governments get hold of adequate resources needed, and to put effective constraints on them so as to achieve the established goals. The first step is to establish a perfect system to guarantee the county governments have enough finances. The second step is to build a national supervision and assessment system so that the county governments can do their due part in providing basic public services.Furthermore, the paper also illustrates the roles of the county governments in the national system of BPS. Under the present system of authorization, the county governments work as an agent of the upper-level governments, but at the same time, there’s a hierarchy command relationship between them. That kind of relationship leads to imbalance of power, responsibility and interest, and dependency on internal supervision, thus apparently decreases the county government’s work efficiency. In addition, the present system indicates that the central government is the center and source of legal power, from which the county governments get their limited authorized power. They don’t have with them inherent power, a fact that determines that they are unlikely to become an independent responsibility body. All the responsibilities eventually go to the central government. Hence, it is suggested in the paper that the role the county governments play in BPS be redefined to build a more efficient provision system of BPS where they can be more active and bear more responsibilities. A seemingly challenging solution is put forward therein that the present hierarchical relationship between governments should be broken through gradually, that is to say, the relationship between the upper-level government and the county government ought to be transformed from a hierarchy command one to a more equal contractual one. This way the county governments can negotiate and cooperate with governments at other levels in the field of BPS, which will enable the county governments not only to improve their efficiency but also to give full play to their initiative, and eventually become the liability subject in ethnic areas.