A Study On Performance Evaluation System Of The Rule Of Law At The District And County Levels In China

The State Council proposed that the governments at the district and county level hold an essential position in the political system of China; and their importance lies in the fact that they are at the frontline of government work and acts as the important executors of national laws, regulations and policies. The district and county governments are "Windows" and "Frontiers" for the Party and the Government to observe and care the national conditions and public feelings. Therefore, the district and county governments play a crucial role and bear an important responsibility in the process of constructing a socialist country ruled by law. The attempts to establish the Rule of Law as the fundamental principle have been made since fifteenth years ago. However, the effects of the Rule of Law have remained an issue of wide concern. Thus, evaluating the effects of the Rule of Law becomes urgent and necessary. Drawing on the experiences and practices of the western countries on performance evaluation, China has begun to utilize the performance evaluation system to supervise and judge the acts of governments. The problem, however, is that no specialized evaluation system has been developed for the construction of the Rule of Law for the governments at district and county levels. As an attempt to solve the current problems, this thesis, tries to provide new ways and methods for the evaluation of the Rule of Law at the district and county levels based on the western performance evaluation system and performance management.The thesis consists of six sections. Chapter I introduces the research background and significance of topic, reviews relevant literature at home and abroad, outlines research design and methodology. Chapter II elaborates the theoretical foundation and practice basis of the performance evaluation of the Rule of Law at the district and county levels based on the analysis of "government ruled by law". Concepts of Law, Public Management and Democracy were discussed in this chapter as well. The third chapter analyzes the subjects and their behaviors towards the performance evaluation of the Rule of Law at district and county levels. In this chapter, the multiple interactive system of evaluation subjects is proposed and the general principles of construction are discussed by comparing advantages of each subject with the public-oriented. Chapter IV discusses the construction of an index system of performance evaluation of the Rule of Law at the district and county levels. Based on the index system of rule of law at home and abroad, this chapter establishes the foundational dimensions and index system relying on the hierarchy, the content and the effects of the Rule of Law. Chapter V integrates and demonstrates how the performance evaluation system works on the Rule of Law at the district and county levels. In addition, this chapter also highlights the scientificalness and reasonableness, the value orientation, mechanism and means of the performance evaluation system of the Rule of Law at the district and county. The last chapter concludes this study with a discussion on the institutional arrangement, macro strategies and specific countermeasures for the performance evaluation system of the Rule of Law at the district and county levels with considerations of the national conditions, foreign experiences and so on. Specifically, this chapter points out the shortage in the value orientation of institutional arrangement and the difficulties in constructing a "government by the law". Finally, this chapter acknowledges limitations of the present study and provides suggestions for future studies.This thesis will try to realize the independent innovation based on Chinese characteristic on performance evaluation system of the Rule of Law at the district and county levels.Meanwhile, this paper hopes provide the theoretical and practical reference for "government of the rule of law" construction and also provide a new research perspective and ideas for the government reform. In the thesis, a lot of methods will be used,such as literature research, induction and deduction, Logical reasoning and so on.In this thesis, a comparatively more scientific, systematic and rationale performance evaluation system of the Rule of Law at the district and county levels is established. Although the effects are subject to practical tests, this new system provides a new angle and serves as a new approach to supervising the construction of the Rule of Law at the district and county levels. This study facilitates the construction of the Rule of Law at the grass-roots level and promotes the progress of establishing the rule of law as a fundamental principle.