Enhancing urban public service efficiency through the national civilized city policy: an empirical analysis of 282 cities in China from 2005 to 2019

ABSTRACT

Public service supply is a cornerstone of urban functionality, with enhancing efficiency being pivotal for sustainable urban development. In China’s urban development strategy, the National Civilized City (NCC) policy stands out as a key tool aimed at bolstering public service efficiency. By analyzing data from 282 Chinese cities spanning 2005 to 2019 and employing the ‘authoritative incentive-technology control’ framework, this study utilizes a fixed-effect regression model to delve into the mechanisms underlying the NCC policy’s impact on public service efficiency. Key findings include: (1) Notably, the NCC policy significantly improves urban public service efficiency, primarily propelled by directives from central authorities (2) The effectiveness of the policy varies across administrative tiers, with a more pronounced impact observed in lower-level cities.(3) Technical control mechanisms, particularly constraint controls, predominantly sustain policy effects (4) The enhancement of urban public services in China hinges on top-down policy incentives, emblematic of a dynamic central-local relationship characterized by the upward transfer of policy power and governance decentralization.

KEYWORDS:

• National civilized city
• public service efficiency
• appraisal-and-commendation policy
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We follow Aghion and Tirole (1997) by defining authority as the right to determine the project. The term ‘authority incentive’ means the positive incentives from higher-level government authorities (Zhu, 2017).

2. Data source: China Civilization Network. http://www.wenming.cn/specials/2020bz/bzjd_51677/202011/t20201120_5857077.shtml

3. National Civilized City Evaluation System 2017[EB/OL].[2021-9-23]. http://qj.wenming.cn/file/201806/t20180605_5250585.html.

4. The control rights theory about the authority relationships in the Chinese bureaucracy give a theoretical model on authority relationships in the Chinese bureaucracy by conceptualizing the allocation of control rights in goal setting, inspections, and provision of incentives among the central government, intermediate government, and grassroots government in the public policy arena (X. Zhou & Lian, 2020). In the tension of China’s policymaking and policy implementation (Jae Ho Chung, 2015), power relations and behavioural patterns are intricately shaped by the distribution of control rights. Based on the control rights theory (X. Zhou & Lian, 2020) and policy process theory (Adelle et al., 2012), the concept of ‘policy power’ means the powers in policy arrangements (Arts & Tatenhove, 2004) ，and converges on the control to the process of decision-making, agenda setting, implementation and evaluation in the public services supply. The term ‘governance power’ interfaces with the ability to accomplish tasks aptitude entailed in the public services supply, and these tasks encompass various aspects such as allocating administrative resources, mobilizing social forces, and more (Chen & Zhao, 2019).

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China under the project titled ‘Research on Precise Supply Mechanism of County Public Services under the New Situation of Population Growth’ (Grant No. 23BZZ062).

Notes on contributors

Xiaomei Li

Xiaomei Li is an associate professor at the School of Public Administration, Sichuan University. Her research interests include public service, social risk governance and public policy. Her papers have been published in many high-level journals, such as Journal of Management World, Journal of Public Management, Chinese Journal of Population, Resources and Environment, Administrative Tribune, Journal of Business Research, Soft Science, Population & Economics, Reform of Economic System, Rural Economy, etc..

Yifan Ma

Yifan Ma is a master student majoring in Public Administration at the School of Public Administration, Sichuan University. His research interests include green technology innovation and public policy in China.

Wei Zhang

Wei Zhang is a professor at the School of Public Administration, Sichuan University. He received his PhD from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2014. His research interests include technological innovation and knowledge management, green governance, low-carbon governance and public policy. He has published more than 80 academic papers in many high-level journals, such as IEEE transactions on Engineering Management, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Knowledge Management, Journal of Information Science, Annals of Operations Research, Technology in Society, Journal of Asian Public Policy, Resource Policy, etc.