公共行政实践与理论互构的历史与未来——从“关于效率的科学”到“关于国家治理绩效最大化的科学”

From“The Science of Efficiency”to“the Science of Maximizing State Governance Performance”——The History and Future of the Mutual Construction of Public A dministration Practice and Theory

从历史进程来看,行政实践在不断向前运动、不断创生着新的内容。作为对实践的反映,行政学理论逐渐走出了聚焦效率的模式,将“关于效率的科学”上升为“关于绩效的科学”,将那些被效率排斥在外的公平、公正等价值纳入公共行政学的范畴。进入21世纪之后,无论是西方发达资本主义国家,还是社会主义中国的公共行政实践都呈现出明显的国家治理现代化态势,不再机械地信守“管得最少的政府就是最好的政府”的信条,转而倡导“只要有利于国家治理绩效最大化的行政管理活动,就属于良好的政府管理”的原则,这就形成了新时代的一种新型行政理论形态,即“关于国家治理绩效最大化的科学”。从全球来看,中国学者走在了新时代创新行政学理论的前列,未来需要将此创新坚持下去。

In a historical perspective,public administrative practice is constantly moving forward and creating new connotations.As a reflection of practice,the theory of public administration has gradually stepped out of the“fundamentalism”mode focusing on efficiency.It transforms“the science of efficiency”into“the science of performance”,incorporating the values of fairness and justice that are excluded by efficiency into public administration.In the 21st century,under the impact of a series of governance crises,public administration practices both in Western and Eastern countries have shown a clear trend of modernization of state governance.Public administration practice no longer mechanically adheres to the motto that“govern least,govern best”but advocates the principle that“as long as administrative activities are conducive to maximizing the performance of state governance,they are good public administrations”.This leads to a new form of public administration theory,i.e.,“the science of maximizing state governance performance”.Globally speaking,Chinese scholars are at the forefront of innovating the new public administration theory in the new era,and this China-style innovation needs to be insisted on in the future.