Public Assessment Research On Local Government Performance

Since the1980s, the demand of modern service-oriented government, governmentperformance improvements and democratic ideals keeps developing. As the main body to beserviced, public participating in government performance assessment and management hasbecome the trend. Academic researchers pay a lot of their attentions to public assessment onlocal government performance. This paper sorted and summarized relevant literature,analyzed some problems in current studies, and raised the thesis topic, which is exploringsuitable public assessment system for China’s service-oriented local governmentperformance, from the perspective of participating in the whole process. Firstly, we definedsome core concepts, explained the theoretical basis of public assessment, discussed thenecessity of public assessment and introduced some public assessment technologies.Secondly, we reviewed the experiences of local government performance assessments,analyzed current situation in three aspects, pointed out drawbacks and shortcomings fromseven perspectives, and explored inherent barriers in five areas. By contrast, CIPA project andthe resident management experiences on government performance in Suffolk, UK,enlightened us in aspects such as a legal guarantee. Finally, we proposed suggestions onpromoting the legalization of public assessment, fostering public awareness and culture ofpublic assessment, establishing an open and efficient communication system, improving themethods and technologies for public assessment and selecting the path of involving in thewhole process.