A Comparative Study Of Long-run Governance Performance And Governance Capability Between EU And China (2000-2012)

With the development of Comprehensively Deepening Reforms and economicglobalization, the modernization of national governance capability and governancesystem has become an indispensable component of China’s modernization progress.The paper proposed a new theoretical framework of “governance” based onexisting literatures: The governance capability determines the governanceperformance. The governance system in turn determines the governance capability.On this basis, the paper makes a comparison on governance performance,governance capability as well as governance system between EU and China.Firstly, by the method of goal congruence, the paper makes an evaluation of thepolicy implementation of EU long-run Lisbon Strategy, which is compared with thatof the10th and11th Five-year Plans in China. Concretely, the paper, by settingdifferent indexes, compares the social and economic development between EU andChina in2000-2011from such aspects as macro economy and trade, humanresources, scientific research and innovation, resource environments and regionaldisparities, and concludes that China’s governance performance is better than EU.Then, the paper divides the governance capability into three categories: governmentduty-performing ability, reach consensus ability and policy operation ability. Thepaper makes a comparison of these three abilities between EU and China to illustratewhy one’s governance performance is so different from the other. The paper furthersorted Lisbon strategy policy-making process and analyzes the legitimacy of thegovernance body and the institutionalization of power distribution in two governancesystems in order to answer the question that why there exist big differences ingovernance capability between EU and China.In the end, the paper concluded that EU’s current governance is unsustainable.China has already developed a unique national governance system and effectivegovernance capability, which help China narrow the gap with the developedcountries. However, China is still lagging behind in some aspects such asenvironmental protection. China should keep strengthening its governance capabilityand governance system in order to improve its governance performance.