By Long Haibo

Research Report Vol.20 No.4, 2018

In order to track and evaluate the achievements made in the government service over recent years, the research team of the“People’s Livelihood Survey in China” of the Development Research Center of the State Council conducted household surveys of people’s livelihood concerns in the eight provinces of Anhui, Hebei, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Fujian, Sichuan, Heilongjiang, and Jiangsu, in 2017, obtaining a total of 9,896 valid questionnaires.The respondents were mainly in the age group of 40-70 years. Most of the respondents had the junior high school and senior high school education, while the number of respondents with college or higher educational background was somewhat lower than that found in 2016.The survey results show that with the deepening of the reforms to delegate power, streamline administration and improve government services, the satisfaction degree of urban and rural residents with government services continues to increase, but there is still a certain gap to be filled to meet the people’s expectations. In particular, there is still a need for continuous improvement in the efforts to address governance inaction and reduce futile actions imposed on the people, and to focus on major public services and key links.

I. The public’s General Evaluation of the Government Services

The overall evaluation of government service and work efficiency can not only reflect the public’s satisfaction degree with government service, but also help the government to further improve its service. Therefore, the “People’s Livelihood Survey in China” research team has carried out continuous follow-up investigations on this issue. The recent five years, have seen urban and rural residents’s how a high degree of satisfaction with government services, with the proportion of the respondents who expressed satisfaction with government services and efficiency (including “very satisfied” and “basically satisfied”, the same below) increasing from 62.9 % in 2013 to 69.1 % in 2017.Thus, through continuous improvement of the government’s measures to facilitate the work of the people, and continuous exploration of new modes of government service, the government’s service capacity and level have gradually improved, and the overall satisfaction with government services shows a growing trend on the whole.

The results of the 2017 household survey showed that 69.1 % of the respondents were satisfied with government services and efficiency, up 4.9 percentage points from 2016. Meanwhile,8.2 % of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction (including “not quite satisfied" and “very dissatisfied”, the same below), down 1.5 percentage points from 2016.When asked to choose an item with which they were“least satisfied in the social environment”[]①, 2.8 % of the respondents chose government services (efficiency), down 1.2 percentage points from 2016.It should be noted that although the degree of satisfaction with government services continues to increase, the respondents who said they were “very satisfied” decreased by 2.7 percentage points compared with 2016, accounting for 14.6 %. This shows that there are still some unsatisfactory aspects of government services at present, which may be related to different regions and groups’ perception, and to a certain extent reflects that the people have higher requirements and more expectations on government services.

1. The satisfaction degree of urban residents with government services is lower than that of rural residents

Among the eight provinces selected in the household survey, 65.6% of urban residents expressed satisfaction with government services, 7.1 percentage points lower than the level among rural residents; the result was generally consistent with that of 2016.Among them, the proportion of urban residents expressing “great satisfaction” with government services was lower than that of rural residents by 5.5 percentage points.This also shows that because there are many kinds of related matters involving urban residents and the procedures are relatively complicated, for example, social security payment, tax declaration, real estate registration, etc., they deal more with government departments in daily life and have more direct impression about them. The satisfaction degree may vary from person to person depending on the situation, which is inevitably influenced by the experience and personal cognition level of as well as the actual effect of government services upon the family members of the respondents.

2. The floating population’s satisfaction degree with government services is lower than that of the local population

The results of the household survey further show that 61.5 % of the floating population is satisfied with government services, 8.3 percentage points lower than that of the local population. The proportion of the floating population expressing “great satisfaction” with government services is lower than that of the local population by 7.7 percentage points.This shows that the proportions of the two types of people expressing “feeling basically satisfied” with the government are basically the same. The main reason is that there is a large difference in the proportion of people indicating “very satisfied” among the two types of respondents. This may be related to the proportion of floating population[]②. Of course, there is room for further improvements in government services. In particular, when handling matters, local governments should treat people equally[]③ and make substantial efforts to provide fair and high-quality services.

3. There are differences in the evaluation and subjective feelings of the respondents from different provinces

Among the eight provinces selected in the household survey, Sichuan and Anhui respondents indicated the highest satisfaction with government services in the place where they lived currently, with 81.4 % and 79.5 % expressing satisfaction and only 5.1 % and 8.7 % expressing dissatisfaction.In contrast, Heilongjiang respondents had the lowest evaluation of government service, with only 53.1 % expressing satisfaction.In comparison with 2016, it was found that Sichuan, Anhui and Zhejiang remained in the top three on the whole. Respondents in Jiangsu showed a slightly declined evaluation, with 63.1 % expressing satisfaction.It can be seen that there is a big difference between the evaluation of government service by and subjective feelings of the respondents in some provinces. That a region is economically developed does not mean thatthe people’s satisfaction degree with the government is high.Of course, this may be related to the investigation and sampling among different provinces, and new problems and contradictions will also arise along with economic and social development.

II. Several Aspects of Government Services that the People Expect to Improve

At present, the comprehensive service capacity of the grassroots government has gradually improved, and problems such as a large number of certification materials, cumbersome procedures to obtain certificates, and inconvenient access to services have been gradually solved.Phasedresults have been achieved in the reforms to delegate power, streamline administration and optimize government services, and the level of government service has gradually improved, but there is still a big gap to be filled to meet people’s higher expectations, as mainly reflected in:

1. The government’s service attitude and ability are continuously improving, but there is still a need for continuous improvement in the efforts to address inaction and reduce trouble for the people.

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