A Study On China's County Government Performance Measurement System

Performance measurement is a way of government management adopted by western countries in the basic frame existing political system and after the marketization of part of government function and the delivery of public service; it is also an important channel and method for the public to express their interests and to participate in the management of government. It reflects the development trend that the government management seeks fairness and democracy value, and contains the management idea of public accountability and putting the customer first. The purpose is to maintain the current basic social order, to improve the quality of service, to improve the mechanism of public accountability and to promote the rallying point of public department of government and the public cohesion. The ideas and practice of local government performance measurement in western countries are of great importance of reference to our country's.The paper focuses on China's county government performance measurement system. On the base of reviewing the theories of government performance measurement: Theory of New Public Management, Polycentric Governance and Sustainable Development, the author firstly introduces local government performance measurement experiences in western countries, and gets some good inspirations. After the case study of three types of China's county government performance measurement practice, the author puts forward the. main problems of our country's county government performance measurement, and then deeply analyzes the five causations. Afterwards, on the base of three theories and the use of Balanced Scorecard, the paper aims to set a performance measurement indicator system which is applicable to China's county government. Ultimately, the paper proposed several research suggestions from institutional and management aspects to improve China's county government measurement system. When measuring the county government performance, more attentions should be paid to the achievements of continuing economic increase, social stabilization, political democracy and freedom, as well as the administration cost and efficiency inside the government. So that, an all-round measurement directed by the county government's strategic goal can be achieved.If a public-based county government could realize the important role the public play during the government management, have them participate in the government measurement, and put the public's requirements first, the public would truly evaluate the quality of public products and services provided by the government. And it is beneficial to the political democracy and stability, economic health and development, social equity and equality, and people's life improvement. Therefore, the study is of theoretical and realistic value.