Preliminary Study On Jinan Metropolitan Circle Governance

As the rapid development of world economic globalization and regional economic integration, the position and function of metropolitan circle in a country's or region's economic and social development are becoming more and more important. Jinan metropolitan circle is located in the Midwest of Shandong Province, linking the east to the west, occupies an important place in the regional economic structure of the province. Promoting the development of Jinan metropolitan circle is major strategy to seize opportunities for the domestic regional economic development. It is also a necessary requirement for promoting the coordinated development of regional economy in Shandong Province and it is urgent needs of circle cities to jointly address the international financial crisis. At present, mostly academic papers about Jinan metropolitan circle stand on the perspective of regional economics, urban economics, urban geography. This paper carries out a preliminary study by making comprehensive use of metropolitan theory, governance and good governance theory, intergovernmental management and complex administrative theory, institutional change theory so as to provide certain reference for promoting governance mechanism innovation and rapid, coordinated, healthy development of Jinan metropolitan circle.To write this paper, methods of literature review, on-site visits, comparative studies and integrating theory with practice have been mainly adopted during the process of research. Firstly, the paper, by adopting the method of qualitative and quantitative analysis, dialectically analyzes present situation of development of Jinan metropolitan circle mainly from six aspects on economic development, intercity connection, infrastructure, urban system, open-the-door, resources and environment. By analyzing, it affirms the achievements and progress in development and also points out the contradictions and problems encountered. Then, the paper analyzes the institutional factors affecting the development of Jinan metropolitan circle, points out that the vertical pressure transmission mechanism and the lateral benefit game mechanism are macrocosmic institution background that affected the development of Jinan metropolitan circle, and the absence of regional governance institution in microcosmic level particularly the inertia of informal system, such as the government's path dependence for administration of traditional administrative region, the influence of regional culture of Jinan metropolitan circle, the imperfect of regional coordination mechanism, ineffective implementation of metropolitan circle planning, etc., have restricted the rapid and healthy development of Jinan metropolitan circle. Then, the paper analyzes four pieces of governance experience of the United States metropolitan areas by using the results of study tour to the United States and literature research. Finally, the paper proposes five path selections for Jinan metropolitan circle governance, namely:1, to overcome the path dependence and realize the transformation from administration of traditional administrative region to regional public management in the aspects of governance ideology, value orientation, governance mechanism, power dimension, and institution design; 2, to promote institutional innovation, especially to establish coordination mechanism of development of Jinan metropolitan circle, further strengthen the participation of multi-bodies, improve capacity for executing Planning of Jinan Metropolitan Circle, and to form new structure of coordinated development of economy and culture; 3, improve public policy, mainly policies in infrastructure, industrial development, urbanization, resource conservation and environmental protection, social undertakings, etc.; 4, create example of cooperation, based on the innovation, imitation view in theory of local government competition, to create Jinan and Dezhou as a successful example of city cooperation and provide useful reference for other cities in Jinan metropolitan circle is proposed; 5, transform government functions, it proposes that municipal government in Jinan metropolitan circle firmly establish and seriously implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, establish and improve the scientific political achievements appraisal system, deepen the administrative system reform, improve and perfect the public finance system public, and so on.