央地关系与地方政府绩效管理制度设计:英国实践的分析

Central-local Relationship and the Design of Local Government Performance Management System:the British Practice

对于地方政府绩效管理,是否应当制定一个全国统一的框架,一直存在争议。在理论上,从央地角度来看绩效管理也还没有得到充分关注。本文以英国为例来探讨这一问题。在不同央地关系下,英国形成了英格兰中央主导、威尔士从中央负责向地方自治过渡、苏格兰地方自主三种地方政府绩效管理模式,在评估主体、评估框架与指标制定主体、考评方式、考评结果应用四个方面体现了多样性的制度设计。英国经验启示我们,在优化我国地方政府绩效管理时,应注意以下几点:坚持差异性与系统性的统一;充分发挥省政府的统筹规划作用,推动多元主体治理;根据环境变化、改革情况适时动态调整;聚焦公共服务改善,实现互相学习。

Different views exist as to whether there should be a national framework for local governments’ performance management efforts. The theoretical literature has paid insufficient attention to the central-local dimension of government performance measurement. The article examines this issue by studying the UK experience. UK has developed three types of local performance management systems that fit different central-local contexts,displaying a diverse set of evaluators,indicator formulators,evaluation modes,and information uses. The UK experience suggests that attention should be paid to four issues when strengthening China’s local government performance management:balancing the national mandate and local diversity,assigning provincial governments the key role of coordination while promoting wide participation from other stakeholders,adjusting the system according to environment change and reform progress,and focusing on public services improvement and intergovernmental learning.