On The Causes And Countermeasures Of The High Administrative Costs In China

The theoretical significance of my paper lies in the fact that it may be helpful to lower the administrative costs in our country; Its practical significance lies in the fact that the lowering of administrative costs is an inevitable choice for Chinese Communist Party to improve it's ability of governing and consolidating the ruling foundation, and is an important task of building the harmonious socialist society as well ; The significance of lowering of administrative costs should not be underestimated with respect to deepening the reform of administrative system, promoting the reform of the political system and establishing the socialist modernization of China.An analysis of the connotation of the current administrative costs is given in the first part of this paper. Administrative costs here refer to the total amount of financial and material resources used by governments at all levels, political parties, institutions, social organizations as well as all the departments and their staff members relying on the government funding, together with the indirect losses rendered by them at present and in future. This paper holds that the theoretical basis of the research in administrative costs concerns People Sovereignty Theory, Principal-agent Theory and New Public Management Theory. People Sovereignty Theory claims that people have the right to supervise the administrative expenses by governments and officials and demand them to reduce unnecessary administrative costs to avoid the waste. The Principal-agent Theory suggests that officials are first of all economic man with a preference for self-interest, and they are unlikely to change their preferences for self-interest when they get into the public areas from the market ones. And social reality has confirmed the rationality of this theory. The New Public Management Theory demands that contemporary governments of all nations should set the "Three Es" ( Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness) as a basic goal to cut down the administrative costs and improve the administrative efficiency.The second part of my paper analyzes the current situation of the administrative costs in China. Authoritative viewpoints and data show that the administrative costs in China are somewhat high. My paper holds that the main causes of the high administrative costs are: First of all, the government functions are too broad, and the sizes of governments are too large. Specifically speaking, the transformation of government functions is not complete; institutional reform is not thorough; the costs of institutions are too high; non-governmental organizations haven't developed sufficiently. Secondly, there doesn't exist a sound budget system. Specifically, budget system is not sound; post consumption is too large. Thirdly, the cost-consciousness of the government clerks is scarce, and decentralized offices lead to unnecessary expenses and costs. Moreover, there is not sound supervision mechanism. For example, the National People's Congress conducts insufficient supervision; social supervision is also insufficient; misconducts of administrative decision result in large losses; "Power Rent-seeking" also bring about great costs.The last part of my paper brings forward some countermeasures on how to reduce the administrative costs in China. It suggests that the reform of the administrative system as well as the administrative departments should be given the first priority. Furthermore, transformation of the government functions is to be promoted, and institutional reform and the development of non-governmental organizations are to be quicken. Secondly, the scientificality and democraticality of administrative decision-making system should be strengthened and the administrative accountability system should be carried out; Thirdly, the cost-consciousness of the administrators in government at all levels should be improved; e-government model and centralized offices should be generalized. Fourthly, the budget system should be improved and perfected; the supervision of expenditure should be strengthened. Specifically, the budget system should be improved; the system of post consumption should be reformed, and the supervision and review of the National People's Congress on the budget should be reinforceed; auditing supervision and social media supervision should be strengthened.The possible innovation of my paper lies in providing a relatively detailed discussion on the impact and roles of the reform of institutions and development of the non-government organizations while analyzing the status of China's administrative costs and offering the countermeasures of lowering administrative costs in China.