Recent developments and future directions of administrative service reform in China

Abstract

This chapter reviews the recent reforms and developments of administrative service delivery in Mainland China, and specifically focuses on the reforms to streamline administrative services by delegating power, strengthening regulation and improving services (Fangguanfu reforms, or the FGF reforms). The chapter analyses the key initiatives in decentralisation, regulatory innovations and public service delivery reforms, and discusses the main challenges in implementing the FGF reforms. The FGF reforms may be considered a hybrid of new public management (NPM) and post-NPM reforms with Chinese characteristics: top-level design and local pilots, together with citizen engagement and digitalisation, play key roles in the reform. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the recent FGF reforms for theoretical developments and comparative studies of administrative reforms.1The author acknowledges the financial support from Beijing Social Science Fund Project (Grant Number: 21DTR058) and helpful comments from the participants of the Sino-Australian Workshop. The author is particularly grateful to Andrew Podger and John Wanna for informative comments and suggestions.