Government Affairs Service Center The New Administrative Mode of Local Government(2005年公共管理国际会议论文).doc

government affairs service center: the new administrative mode of local government1.zhang qin-pei 2.ruan zhen-zhen school of public administration, jilin university, changchun, p.r.china, 130012abstract the government affairs service center is a practice of local government reform in china. because of the lag of the whole administration reform, government affairs service center starts from the reform of administrative examination and approval, which attempts to improve the public service quality. it breaks through the traditional bureaucracy and sets up a new mode of local government, which is significant. however, government affairs service center itself brings about some problems in the course of operation. as for those problems, we must solve them with reform persistently.key words government affairs service center administrative examination and approval local government reform1 introductionin recent years, most provinces and cities in china set up all kinds of government affairs service centers successively. it is the inherent demand of establishing a service-type government, and the valuable grope of public service innovation. the government affairs service center is a mode of public service. it means that the government combines all kinds of its functions effectively and offers a kind of consecutive, quick, open and transparent service to the citizens in a concentrated big office. it is a rational system mode groped by government when government original system design and system implement met multiple difficulties in the course of concrete administration manipulation during social transition. it is a model of reinventing local government under the paradigm of new public management.2 origin of the government affairs service centerthe administrative model of government affairs service center originated from one-stop-shop service of britain. one-stop-shop service means citizens can finish all procedures and obtain all services they needed through applying in one organ or window instead of running among numerous organs or windows when they handle relevant affairs in the government organs. maybe every people has such feelings when they went to government to handle affairs: if he wants to apply one thing, he must not only get the administrative examination and approval of a lot of government departments but also finish a lot of administrative examination and approval links according to the strict procedure. as a result, a large amount of time was wasted in traffic and waiting. the one-stop-shop service can overcome the trouble; it not only facilitated the masses greatly but also helped the government to build up good image. after mrs. thatcher became the premier of the u.k., the britain government did its best to push the administrative reform and implement the one-stop-shop service in the administration in order to change organs scope expand, overstaffing, low efficiency and serious department interest incline which traditional bureaucracy brought about. in the last few years, with the further development of reform and opening-up of china, the coastal cities have taken many kinds of measures to absorb the foreign capitals and improve the investment environments. most cities have imitated britains method and set up the government affairs service centers one after another, which especially aimed at foreign businessmans headache, such as miscellaneous procedure of government organ, low efficiency and serious corruption. they offered fast channels to handle affairs through concentrating the power of administrative examination and approval of governments functional departments together, which had improved administrative efficiency greatly, reduced the corruption, depressed the transaction cost and strengthened administrative affairs openness and transparency as well.3 inside system analysis of the government affairs service centerat present, most local governments in china have successively set up the government affairs service centers for optimizing the procedures of administrative examination and approval, simplifying the flow of handling affairs and improving the quality of public service. though the names of those government affairs service centers are different, such aspects as basic organization, personnel system, duty function and operating mechanism, etc. are almost same.3.1 organization and personnel systemthe government affairs service center takes the administrative level as governments organ, which is lower than the same degree government by half a degree. the director of the government affairs service center of city level in some provinces is generally concurrentlied by the administrative vice-mayor. the administrative vice-director of the center is concurrentlied by the secretary-general of municipal government who presides over the centers routine. the center sets up synthesis, intendance and administration offices generally. the managerial personnel of the center, whose identities are still kept civil servant identity, are transferred from the existing administrative organs by the personnel department. the handling personnel at windows commended by the departments that they formerly belonged to according to concrete demand of high quality, skilled professional skills, good ability and excellent service will jump in job immediately after they pass the examination. the examination is once a year usually. the organization connections of the chinese communist party member of these handling personnel at windows are generally changed over to the center and the center will organize the activity in unison. the handling personnel at windows accept the double leadership of the center and the departments that they formerly belonged to. their professional work is still led by the departments that they formerly belonged to and the routine of the center is led by the leaders of the center.3.2 main functionon the whole, the government affairs service center is a comprehensive service organization, which consists of the function of the examination and approval and charging, management and coordination, complaint and intendance. its main duty includes examination and approval service, advisory service and intendance service etc. for example, the duty of government affairs service center of hefei can be listed as follows: to handle relevant procedures that internal and external investor, the masses and enterprise need to transact, and offer a connected sequence service;to correspond and transact the examination and approval of handling such infrastructure right to use of water supply, power supply , telecommunication , traffic of investment project.to deal with reception, negotiation and advisory service of the investor, masses and enterprise, and explain every policies and regulations to them ;to run with difficulty and problem that the masses and enterprise meet while going through the operation procedures; to take charge of supervising and coordinating the former department to go through other relevant operation procedures; to undertake other work that the government assigns.3.3 operating mechanismafter a few years grope and practice, on the premise of providing services openly, the government affairs service center in china form a set of comparatively intact and normal operation mode basically. the following paragraph will sum up six main systems. handling affairs directly. based on the demand of market economy, governments function units decrease power consciously, simplify the procedures of examination and approval, improve working efficiency and handle relevant items for the masses directly. in government affairs service center, all application item, whose procedure is simple and convenient and can be finished on the spot or in the same day, will be accepted promptly by the handling personnel at the windows and finished promptly on the spot; service promise. governments function unit promise finishing the service in limit time according to its own characteristic and demand and the specific character of the project; the first responsible people .the customers coming to the center to handle affairs will be appointed one of the staff as the first responsible person. the first responsible people accompany and recommend customer to finish all procedures from start to end. the customers only need to keep in touch with the first responsible people and ask the person the result of the affairs. jointly handle affairs. as for the great application item relating to more than three departments, the sponsor will accept and take the lead in jointly handling. answer clearly. if the application project is prohibited by official order, or not accord with the national industrial policy or local development, the relevant windows will be responsible for replying the customers definitely charge at one window in unison . all examination and approval projects of entering the center will be charged at one window in unison.4 positive effects of operationthe government affairs service center is the result of governments reform under the market economy and a kind of innovation of public service. the initiative spirit of the government affairs service center not only reflects on the technological aspect, but also on the value aspect. the government affairs service center is a dna of reforming traditional bureaucracy .it is a successful model of reinventing public organize to a certain extent. compared with the quondam organizations operational mode, the service mode of government affairs service center has the following positive effects:4.1 from management into servicethe organization and operation of traditional government are belonged to classical bureaucracy mode of max weber in which the citizens are often in obeying status passively and the administrators are deemed to be the target of ruling and managing too. the establishment of the government affairs service center means beginning to change the organization and operational mode of the bureaucracy and introduces the spirit of customers strategy to the organs of the government, which regard customers sovereignty as the basic value. in practice, it offers concrete service measure and changes ordinary role of citizen from the passive management target into the initiative customer. it executes the activity of public service on the customers demand and for the interests of customer, which manifest administrative spirit of democracy people first .4.2 from barrier into networkone of characteristic of traditional bureaucracy is peoples worship to the system, the decisive reason of the system has been the pure technological superiority which has exceeded other organization forms all the time.everything is brought up to a best bit in strict bureaucracy. it requires in the course of public administration, the organization need the system foundation with the pyramid structure that is impersonalizative. this kind of impersonalizative system structure relies on the specialized unit of pigeons cage type of the barrier among different departments to solve the old and new problems. this causes ceaselessly enlargement of pigeons cage and the personnel dont visit each other all their lives among the offices, on the other side, because of the civil servants roles of rational economic man , every department does things on his own way, and there are obvious barriers among the departments .the service offered is incoherent either. now, original jobs of several dozen offices are amalgamated into 5-7 windows in the government affairs service center. the personnel handle affairs in the same center, which break the interdepartmental organization barrier and form networked service system. all those make the government and organization seamless.4.3 from division into cooperationthe classical bureaucracy emphasizes the labor division of public administration on the basis of specialization. there is strict division of labor among the departments, among the civil servants. the handling personnel must comply with strict systematic working procedure in the course of operating .it is required for handling personnel to obey the impersonal system instead of the relation among individual. this may causes the lack of mutual coordination and cooperation among the public departments. the government affairs service center follows the one-stop-shop service and offers overall and comprehensive services to citizens. the staffs of different departments cooperate availably at the same time and in the same place, and they offer all kinds of service items. this kind of method has improved governments efficiency and changed the working way of yamen type. in the past, the attitude of handling personnel in administration was abominable, and the producers of applying project were complicated. but now, the new mode of government affairs service center avoids mutual prevarication and dispute over trifles.4.4 from red tape into putting in right place in one step the traditional public service was carried on under rigorous pyramid institutional framework, and the provision of public service must pass the strict and complicated procedures. at last, the quality of public service was flooded by red tape because the inside environment and outside environment of the organization of government came forth the predicament, and the procedures were increased and complicated day by day in the course of modernization. the government affairs service center provides one-stop-shop service and transplants the efficiency theory to the government department in time, which improve the governments time sensitivity. the center stipulates clearly the time limit of providing service. it offers the one-stop-shop service to citizens in time and adopts work mode of lobby anterior, office back and the first responsible people”, which has save a great deal of the citizens time and energy and has improved the governments administrative efficiency.5 existent predicament of government affairs service centerthe government affairs service centers that have set up are the practices of administrative reform of changing governments style of work and governments image in order to improve administrative efficiency under existing governments framework, which receives notable effect and is popular with the citizens. but the government affairs service centers face the predicaments yet, because administrative reforms lack systemic innovation.5.1 predicament of the thought: the constraint of the theory of power center and official first thoughtthe setting-up and development of the government affairs service center in china are influenced by the theory of western new public management to a certain extent; one of the key ideas of this kind of theory is the decentralization. however, what china implemented is rigidly stratified and traditional bureaucracy that power is concentrative for a long time. up to now, a series reform that the government of china pushed has not broken through this kind of system fundamentally. though governments at all levels canonize highly decentralization formally, they still defend tenaciously power center theory actually, which resists development and innovation of the center in theory .in practice, they dont accredit substantively to the handling personnel at windows, then the windows only become the anterooms.in addition, it is necessary for the government to limit and standardize the behaviors of itself and officials, and establish the idea that people first in order to implement the innovation of the public service and set up the service-type government. but at the initial stage of operation of the center, some thoughts and behaviors of bureaucracy dont disappear. it still happens that the attitude of handling personnel in administration is abominable, and the producers of applying project are complicated when the citizens handle affairs in the center. so, we need object to the thought of official first and make up a missed lessons of against feudalism simultaneity in the aspect of ideology and culture to some extent.5.2 system predicament: faultage of system and scarcity of legislatingthe government affairs service center is an organization increased additionally .the government affairs service centers of all areas were set up on the basis of a file or order of the government. the main officials of the government hold the leadership position concurrently. the center is regarded as an organ of the government and has administrative ranks. the reason that the government affairs service centers in many areas can be established and run within very short time is compulsive order and administrative interference of the committee of ccp and the government actually. obviously, the local government orientates the government affairs service center as an administrative organization instead of the undertaking or social agency organization. analyzed in terms of administrative histology theory, the establishment of the government affairs service center lacks the legitimacy foundation that can be supported. the government affairs service center can adopt existing system design, if it is only a temporary organization. however, its legitimacy foundation and rationality document all need be demonstrated seriously as the fixed organization for a long time. it should have definite character and design of system.at present, the government affairs service centers were set up in two levels of city and county mostly and only a few government affairs service centers were set up in province level. the government affairs service center is an increased organization on basis of the existent management system of barrier among different departments . the following question is how to realize to be linked among the prov