Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2021

Local Government Value Governance and Its Institutional Effect 

(Abstract)

Zhou Shangjun

A significant advantage of China’s state and national governance systems is the consolidation of common ideals, values and morality. In examining the motivations of local government behavior, however, existing research generally explains them by using technical interests/power analysis, failing to consider the value of the systems. This cannot effectively reveal the super-economic logic of the behavior and the underlying value mechanisms behind state governance performance and the institutional ethics of the governance system under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. In terms of organizational structure, local governments in the party-government structure, local administrations under the national administration, and guidance on value evaluation carried out under central tasks provide strong organizational and institutional support for the value governance of local government. Looking from the historical perspective, we can see that local governments’ value governance tasks have gone through a process from “unity goals” to “interest goals,” and are finally to “comprehensive goals.” The growth incentives are the result of being led by value goals, which will be optimized and transformed through goal adjustment. Faced with an ever changing situation of risk management, local governments not only urgently need scientific and technological empowerment, but also need to further optimize their value mobilization mechanism; they need to start with the enhancement of organizational cohesion, to accelerate institutional upgrading in terms of value goal absorption, value governance operation, and value coordination and feedback, to achieve the improvement of governance capabilities at the level of values, institutions and methodology. The continuous enrichment of the comprehensive goals will then enable local governments to adjust the connotations of their value goals and improve the social adaptability of the value system in the absorption and integration of values, so as to further concentrate the strong cohesion and sustainable development capacity of value governance.