Study On Administrative Internal Accountability System

Since the “accountability storm” was implemented in SARS period in2003, theadministrative accountability system which aims at restricting and controlling theofficials’ power through tracing their accountability has become a forced democracymechanism for China to establish a responsible government. If we take the subject whoimplements the accountability as standard, the administrative accountability can bedivided into two types, that is, administrative internal accountability system in whichthe Communist Party of China (CPC) and government organs trace accountability totheir officials, and administrative external accountability system in which the subjectbeyond party and government organs traces accountability to party and governmentofficials. This paper takes administrative internal accountability system as object ofstudy to explore the theoretical basis of administrative internal accountability system,and then finds out the problems currently existing in Chinese administrative internalaccountability system in terms of legislation and practice through classification,statistics, and analysis on documents about administrative accountability system andaccountability events of local governments, and further proposes specificcountermeasures about how to perfect Chinese administrative internal accountabilitysystem. The main content of this paper is shown as below.The introduction part firstly explains background of topic selection, significance,and research status, points out the reason why the current administrative accountabilitytheory can’t explain CPC and government officials’ active implementation ofadministrative internal accountability system, and proposes that we should re-treatadministrative internal accountability system from a new theoretical perspective, fullyexplore the potential of government self-regulation, and perfect Chinese administrativeinternal accountability system. Finally, this paper gives a brief description on basic framework and research method of this paper.Chapter I mainly analyzes and discusses the basic concept, constitutive elements,and in-CPC accountability system related to administrative internal accountabilitysystem, and the relation between administrative internal accountability system andadministrative external accountability system. Firstly, it defines the basic conceptrelated to administrative internal accountability system, mainly including responsibility,accountability system, administrative accountability system, administrative internalaccountability system, and administrative external accountability system, etc., andpoints out that the in-CPC accountability system is the exception of administrativeinternal accountability system. Secondly, it carries out a research on relation betweenadministrative internal accountability system and administrative externalaccountability system; on the basis of making a distinction between these twoaccountability systems, it points out that the administrative internal accountabilitysystem is an important mechanism for government self-regulation, while theadministrative external accountability system is an auxiliary mechanism foradministrative internal accountability system, and these two accountability systemsjointly exert accountability function. Finally, it gives a specific explanation onadministrative internal accountability system from perspective of basic constitutiveelements of administrative internal accountability system such as subject, object, range,procedure, and result.Chapter II analyzes and demonstrates necessity of administrative accountabilitysystem from five aspects, that is, historical background under which the administrativeinternal accountability system rose, theoretical basis, cause, advantage, and function.Firstly, it analyzes the historical background under which the administrative internalaccountability system rose, and points out that the administrative internalaccountability system is a new means to confront government legitimate crisis.Secondly, it introduces the theoretical basis of administrative internal accountabilitysystem. As a kind of mechanism which mainly implements self-regulation ongovernment power, the administrative internal accountability mainly includes following six aspects of theory: responsible government theory, administrativeself-regulation theory, good governance theory, hierarchy theory, new publicmanagement theory, and responsibility ethic theory. Secondly, it starts from fourperspectives of features of Chinese political system, not necessarily loss of fairness ofinternal accountability, possible failure of external accountability, and compensationfor defects of external accountability to demonstrate the cause of administrativeinternal accountability system. Thirdly, it points out that the administrative internalaccountability system has advantages of small opposability, convenient deep-levelsupervision, efficiency and convenience, and low regulation cost, etc. compared toadministrative external accountability system. Finally, it points out that theadministrative internal accountability system has three functions, that is, establishingresponsible government, re-shaping officials’ good image, and maintaining socialfairness and justice.Chapter III points out the existing problems on the basis of deep investigation andanalysis on current situation of Chinese administrative accountability system. Firstly, itgives a comprehensive investigation on legislation status of Chinese administrativeaccountability system from perspective of accountability subject, accountability object,information source, scope of accountability, and way of accountability, etc., and deeplyanalyzes documents about administrative accountability system collected from42localgovernments to find out some rules. Secondly, in order to investigate practice status ofChinese administrative accountability system, it selects62representativeaccountability events occurred in the period from March2003to December2012inChina to find out operation features and rules of Chinese current administrativeaccountability system through comparative analysis on type of event, accountabilitysubject, accountability reason, accountability result, and other relevant index of eachaccountability event, and also points out that the administrative internal accountabilitysystem is the main mode of Chinese current administrative accountability. Finally, onthe basis of above investigation, it points out that many problems exist in Chineseadministrative internal accountability system in terms of legislation and practice, for convenience of providing foundation for proposing the countermeasures andsuggestions about perfecting Chinese administrative accountability system in contentbelow.Chapter IV proposes specific thoughts and methods about perfecting Chineseadministrative internal accountability system. Currently, China should establish aneffective administrative internal accountability system. Firstly, on the basis ofinvestigating the administrative internal accountability system of main westerncountries such as U.K., U.S., France, and Japan, we should boldly borrow ideas fromadministrative accountability experience of main western countries to perfect andenrich Chinese administrative internal accountability. Secondly, we should furtherperfect regulatory accountability system in administrative organs from four aspects,which is, enhancing chief executive responsibility system, enhancing administrativesupervision accountability, perfecting audit accountability, and quickeningadministrative ethic legislation. Thirdly, we should formulate national uniformadministrative accountability law from five aspects, that is, establishing the basicprinciple of integration of power and responsibility, accountability according to law,equality and publicity, combination of punishment and education, and accountabilityrelief; specifying accountability object and his responsibility; expanding and unifyingscope of accountability; standardizing accountability procedure; defining type ofresponsibility and corresponding way of accountability. Finally, we should perfectsupporting system of administrative internal accounting system from three aspects,which is, perfecting duty dereliction resignation system, standardizing resumptionmechanism for CPC and government officials whose responsibility is traced andpromoting information disclosure in accountability.It should be emphasized that the author has no intention to deny that theadministrative external accountability system meets democratic political requirementsalthough this paper strongly demonstrates reasonableness of administrative internalaccountability system; however, under the premise of making affirmation on externalsupervision and restriction, the author advocates to fully exert the function of active and low-cost government self-regulation for convenience of establishing a highlyresponsible government self-regulation mechanism in China, so as to make CPC andgovernment officials further establish a faith of providing active service for wholesociety and make spirit of administration by law fully reflected.