How Does Chinese Local Government Respond to Citizen Satisfaction Surveys? A Case Study of Foshan City (中国地方政府如何响应公民满意度调查？来自广东省佛山市的案例研究)

Abstract

Three decades of economic liberalisation in China have reshaped relationships between the state, market and community to a remarkable degree. In recent years, a growing body of literature has documented the rise of citizen satisfaction surveys in assessing the performance of Chinese local government. Yet little is known about how Chinese local government responds to such surveys. This article addresses this gap. Based on a case study of Foshan City in Guangdong Province, this article shows that information in citizen satisfaction surveys is used in two major ways in this locality: the city's leadership officials use the information to support pre‐existing policies while departmental officials use it to improve service delivery. This study shows that, with the rising power of the community, citizen satisfaction surveys can be an important intermediary between the Chinese state and its citizens and help local government to be more responsive to citizen needs.中国过去三十年来的经济改革在很大程度上重塑了政府、市场与社会的关系。近年来，越来越多的研究开始关注公民满意度调查在评估中国地方政府绩效中的使用。然而，对于地方政府如何响应这些调查的结果却知之尚少。本文试图解答这个问题。文章通过对广东省佛山市的案例研究发现，公民满意度调查中的信息在该地主要用于两个方面：市领导使用这些信息来支持既有改革和调整政策投入，而主管改革的部门官员则使用这些信息来改善公共服务。本研究表明，随着社会的力量不断增强，公民满意度调查或可成为中国地方政府与公民之间的重要媒介，并使地方政府对公民的需求更具响应性。