宋代地方政府公信力损耗及其治理论析

Research on the Loss of Public Credibility of Local Governments in the Song Dynasty and Its Prevention and Control

政府公信力是社会公众对政府履职能力的认可和信任度,属于政府的无形资产。宋代地方政府在行政中公信力损耗严重,主要表现在政策执行朝令夕改、失信于民,官员滥用权力残害民众、贪赃腐败、渎职怠政等方面。导致这种情况的原因包括部分官员素质较差,地方财政窘迫,中央政令和考核指标要求以及监督问责体制难以发挥实效等。为了挽回民众信任,宋朝统治者也提出一系列防治举措,既有制度层面的法令规章,也有执行层面的人事运作,还包括诸如《官箴书》之类的劝诫引导等,并取得一定成效。但由于缺乏严格的惩治措施和长效问责机制,特别是中央决策的可行性和对地方财政的搜刮,导致地方政府违法扰民问题仍屡禁不止,治理效果大打折扣。所以宋代民众以“不清不浊”的浆水色来形容地方政府和官员,其中的经验教训值得认真反思。

Government credibility is essentially a kind of credit,belonging to the intangible assets of the government.It is the recognition and trust of the public in the government’s ability to perform its duties.The credibility of local governments in the Song Dynasty was severely damaged in their administration,mainly manifested in the implementation of policies that changed day and night,dishonesty with the people,abuse of power by officials to harm the people,corruption,dereliction of duty,and other aspects.The reasons for the serious loss of its credibility include the poor quality of some officials,lax self-discipline,local financial distress,the requirements of central government decrees and assessment indicators,and the difficulty in bringing the supervision and accountability system into play.In order to regain the trust of the people,the Song Dynasty government also took many measures,including laws and regulations at the institutional level,personnel operation at the executive level,and exhortation and guidance such as Official Prose(官箴),which prevented the outstanding loss of local government credibility from various channels and achieved certain results.However,due to the lack of strict punishment measures and long-term accountability mechanism in the Song Dynasty as a whole,especially the feasibility of the central decision-making and the expropriation of local finance,the problem of local governments violating the law and disturbing the people has been repeatedly banned,which has greatly reduced the governance effect.Therefore,the people in the Song Dynasty described local governments and officials with the color of“unclear and turbid”(不清不浊),and the experience and lessons are worthy of serious reflection.