About this paper

The authority of governments is a key breakthrough in the study of intergovernmental fiscal relations. The normative documents and authority lists are the analytical foundation of this study. In the vertical dimension, the basic authoritysharing mechanism in China has experienced the cycle switch from “centralization and separation of authority” to “moderating centralization and matching authority”. In the horizontal dimension, the purpose of authority adjustment is to give full play to the market self-correction capability and improve the administrative efficiency of governments. The essential basis of the division of authority is the basic property of authority—compulsion and substanitivity summarized by the fact of authorization clarification. Different combinations of compulsory authority and substantive authority at different levels are embodied in forms of central government authority, local authority and joint authority. The study of the division of the intergovernmental authority in China should not be confined to the theoretical framework of fiscal federalism, but rather focus on the actual division of authority and its evolution, so as to restore the inherent law of the division of authority in China.

Reference

Yao Dongmin, Yan jin, Li Jing. An Analysis of the Basic Logic of the Division of the Intergovernmental Authority Based on the Policy Text [J]. Journal of Renmin University of China, 2018, V32(6): 66-77.