The Quality of Governance in China and Beyond: Introduction to Special Issue
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1802 |
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
| Published date | 01 August 2017 |
| Author | Hon S. Chan,Ting Gong,Paul Collins |
THE QUALITY OF GOVERNANCE IN CHINA AND BEYOND:
INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE
†
TING GONG
1
*, PAUL COLLINS
2
AND HON S. CHAN
1
1
City University of Hong Kong, China
2
Public Administration and Development, UK
SUMMARY
As a result of the movement from government to governance, various institutional reforms have taken place across countries to
shift powers and responsibilities of government to public and private partnerships or quasi-government and nongovernment
actors. Much has been said about the dynamics and processes of this shift, but its outcomes remain practically obscured and
theoretically underexplored. Changing modes of governance does not necessarily lead to improved outcomes. Government
service should be assessed not only by quantity but also by quality. For any society, healthy social development is no less
important than economic growth and material affluence. As China’s case indicates, the ways, processes and results of effective
governance in fulfilling social, ethical and environmental responsibilities still remain challenging despite or because of rapid
GDP growth, significant expansion of public services and considerable improvement in living standards. China’s experience
in dealing with a range of governance issues provides both positive and negative lessons for other societies that are facing
similar problems. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
key words—New Public Management; the quality of governance; development models; government capability; China
BACKGROUND
The concept of governance has become increasingly important in the discussion of public administration in recent
decades. From ‘governance with government’(Peters and Pierre, 1998) to ‘governance beyond government’
(Wachhaus, 2014), scholars have expressed concerns with the traditional and hierarchical organizational forms
of government and advocated more decentralized and collaborative models of governance. In practice, various
institutional reforms have taken place across countries to shift powers and responsibilities of government to public
and private partnerships or quasi-government and nongovernment actors. Much has been said about the dynamics
and processes of this shift, but its outcomes remain practically obscured and theoretically underexplored. While
the New Public Management (NPM) emphasizes outputs rather than inputs or processes, its 3Es approach—
economy, efficiency and effectiveness—has nevertheless been criticized for sacrificing important social values
such as equity, fairness, honesty and impartiality. Changing modes of governance does not necessarily lead to
improved outcomes. Even if services are improved, public satisfaction with government or their trust in public
organizations may not necessarily increase (Bouckaert and Van de Walle, 2003). Government services should
be judged not only on quantity but also on quality. The emphasis on high-quality governance is concerned not
so much with economic development or material affluence but with the healthy development of societies. It pays
attention to the ways, processes and results of governance in fulfilling social, ethical and environmental
responsibilities.
*Correspondence to: Ting Gong, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong. E-mail: tgong2@cityu.edu.hk
†
The articles in this special issue are based on papers that were originally presented at a workshop held at the City University of Hong Kong in
June 2016. We thank the Global China Studies project of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at City University of Hong Kong for
sponsoring the workshop. The work was partially supported by a grant from the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong (project # 9042104).
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 37, 155–159 (2017)
Published online in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1802
Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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