Research On Local Government Information Transparency

With fast and continuous development of the society, the importance of information, being widely realized, is reflecting in all aspect of society. Consequently, the government information, as a kind of public resources, enjoys increasingly widespread focus worldwide. In recent decades, demands for the government information transparency gathered momentum. As a result, research on government information transparency has become a hot issue in public management field. As is well-known to us, government information transparency is not only a necessary approach for preserving our rights to be informed, heard, and to oversee, but also a pathway for our government’s transforming process-from the old closed plan-oriented style to new transparent service-oriented one. Government information transparency, as a good way for bettering public service quality, can help our country to adapt to the global trend, which in turn serves as a foundation for revealing a good national image. After the State Council of the People’s Republic of China promulgated and implemented the "Regulations on government information transparency" in May,2008, successive perfections on related rules and regulations has been performed, transparency of government information has been improved, various forms of transparency has been proposed, which, as a whole, enhance the political, economic and social development in China.At present, although works on government information transparency has been vigorously carried out throughout the country, and has made certain effect, according to the practical feedback, still there exist certain problems for us to deal with. This paper, taking Tieling municipal government as an example, is aiming at discovering the practical approaches to addressing such problems through analyzing their roots, then ensuring a better circumstance for public information service.A systematic set of analytical methods, including literature survey, comparative analysis and questionnaire are applied in this paper. In order to work out a practical conclusion, references such as researches on international government information transparency cases are taken into account, detailed notions and fundamental theories are presented, importance and significance for government information transparency are analyzed, experiences on government information transparency from other countries are discussed and results of related surveys in Tieling city are analyzed in detail. Through evaluating the case of government information transparency of Tieling municipal government, this paper draws a conclusion of the roots and proposes suggestions to improve the government information transparency work of Tieling.This paper contains5chapters:Chapter1is the introduction, discussing the background information about this research; Chapter2is the fundamental theory on government information transparency, explaining the notions and theories on government information transparency while analyzing the importance and significance of government information transparency; Chapter3discusses the current government information transparency status of Tieling municipal government and its achievement and failings on government information transparency; Chapter4presents the experiences extracted from nations like America and Japan, cities like Shanghai and Beijing; Chapter5draws a conclusion about this paper and proposes suggestions on how to better government information transparency service for local government.Previous research on government information transparency mostly emphasizes theoretical works, hence the lack of practical works. This paper-through investigating the government information transparency case of Tieling municipal government, analyzing the questionnaire results, finding the roots of existing government information transparency problems, then proposing suggestions-has on the one hand broadened the research vision of government information transparency problem, on the other hand, compared with most related research in China concentrating on central government, has done research to the local government, which is significant in both addressing local government information transparency issues and enriching the study on government information transparency.For the access of some needed materials on laws and regulations is difficult to achieve, this dilemma impedes the writing process of this paper now and then. And due to the lack of important datum and the limitation of the author’s own perspective, this paper centers on qualitative analysis.