摘要
30多年的改革开放和经济建设,使得中国的政治社会结构发生了巨大变化,也催生出了一系列尖锐的社会矛盾。其中,公众日渐提高的公共服务需求与政府在公共服务方面的投入和供给的局限成了一对主要矛盾。如何提供普遍的优质公共服务,摆在了各级政府面前。尤其是地方政府,一方面承担主要公共服务职能,另一方面又受到财政和政策的局限,使得它们不得不探索全新的政策工具来保障公共服务的供给。在西方国家,社会参与被证明是一种有效的政策工具,然而它的适用性在中国尚存有疑虑。本文试图通过分析宁波市海曙区政府与社会组织在提供养老服务过程中的合作模式,讨论了社会力量参与公共服务供给过程的可能性和有效性。本案例表明,尽管存在威权主义的倾向,但在公共服务任务的倒逼之下,中国地方政府仍然可以主动培育社会力量,让自身获得新的政策工具,进而使一些地方性的政策过程中的政策决策、执行和改进的方式发生重大变化。对于中国社会组织而言,政府公共服务职能的扩大或许是这些组织"在参与中成长"的重要机遇。
Thirty years reform has resulted in huge changes of the political and social structures in China, and it also creates serious social contradictions. Among others, it has become a key contradiction that governments' supply of public services mismatch the public's increasing demand. It has become a challenge for governments at different levels — especially for local governments — to provide various and good services. On one hand, they have to perform the function of provision. On the other,they are constrained by budgetary and policy limits. Therefore, they have to find new policy tools to guarantee the provision. In the West,social participation has proved to be an effective tool. However, its suitability to China is still suspected. The authors probe the possibility and effectiveness of social forces' participation in supply of public services. The case shows that although there are propensities of authoritarianism in the society, Chinese local governments — under the increasing pressure on them to assume more responsibilities — still can actively nurture social empowerment to let them acquire new policy tools to make big changes in the ways local decisions are made,implemented and improved. For the social organizations in China, the expansion of governments' function to provide public services may be an important opportunity for them to'grow through participation.'
出处
《国际社会科学杂志（中文版）》
2014年第3期103-113,7,共12页
International Social Science Journal（Chinese Edition）
