Problem Statement and Purpose
Why does the traditional administrative model in China cannot cope with the social demands for the public service provision? Does the government digital transformation, as a new means of alternative service delivery in China, provide more abundant and efficient public services for the society? And what is the Societal Responsiveness to those digital innovations implemented by governments?
Traditionally, the ‘command-oriented’ model, based on human communication and document transmission, has been widely used in China’s administration. However, with the acceleration of urbanization and the increase of floating population, the public services provided by this traditional administrative model can no longer meet people's needs, and thus lead to the administrative inefficiency as well as the increase in the gap between the urban and the rural. This paper, therefore, aims to investigate whether digitalization in government at all levels in China is conducive to the transformation of administrative model from traditionally the ‘command-oriented’ to alternatively the ‘service-oriented’, and whether these administrative innovations can facilitate to provide more abundant public service delivery through digital means, and to what extent the society responses to this alternative service provision by digital means in administrative innovations resulting in the urban-rural structure changes.
Methodology
(1) Field Studies. The research team did field work in 15 counties and cities over China, concentrating on how the government digitalization transforms the administrative model and what alternative service delivery those local government has provided to the society. Based on those 15 cases, some representative cases have thus been selected as the evidence in supporting the argument of this paper.
(2) Literature Review. For one thing, the author sorted out the latest documents on digital construction issued by both central and local governments, which is essential in guiding the administrative digital transformation. For another, the author sorted out important relevant academic literature, which is helpful with an overall understanding of the current academic progress in government digitalization in China and what original contributions can be made by this paper.
(3) Comparative Analysis. In China, the development between the east and the west and that between urban and rural areas are quite different. We thus select 4-6 cases which represents each area for the study, so as to avoid the possibly conclusion errors caused by sample homogenization.
(4) Qualitative analysis. 150 questionnaire surveys have been distributed and collected so as to testify how the society responds to those digital innovations.
Findings
Based on a number of case studies, the main findings are as follows: Firstly, by means of digitalizing government, the public service provision is more abundant in terms of livelihood, healthcare and pension. Secondly, by applying AI technology and constructing the ‘Smart City’ system, the government's ability to coordinate all parties is effectively improved. Thirdly, the resolution of grassroots conflicts is more timely with the application of digital technology. Last but not least, by developing the ‘rural e-commerce’, the income in rural area has increased and the urban-rural gap has been narrowed.
Proposals
Although advantages in digital service delivery are obvious, new problems emerge as well, such as the inappropriate use of big data may cause the invasion of individual privacy; data server overload may lead to the collapse of the administration; massive data owned by the big IT companies may cripple the public services functioned by governments and thus form data silos. The author therefore proposes initiative solutions: making relevant policies for both breaking down data barriers and protecting data privacy, strengthening more digital support for rural areas to promote social equality, enhancing deliberative democracy to provide better digital public service goods.
References
[1] Andreas Jungherr, Ralph Schroeder. Digital Transformations of the Public Arena[M]. Cambridge University Press, 2022.
[2] Latupeirissa J J P, Dewi N L Y, Prayana I K R, et al. Transforming Public Service Delivery: A Comprehensive Review of Digitization Initiatives[J]. Sustainability, 2024, 16(7): 18-28.
[3] Wang C, Ma L. Digital transformation of citizens’ evaluations of public service delivery: evidence from China[J]. Global Public Policy and Governance, 2022, 2(4): 477-497.
[4] Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Digital Government China Government Network[EB/OL], 2022, https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2022-06/23/content_5697299.htm.
