By Yang Weifu, Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, DRC

Research Report, Special Issue, No.32, 2018 (Total 1599) 2018-8-31

Abstract: Short-term behavior is a persistent problem that leads to the situation that some economic and social development problems cannot be effectively solved for a long time, and it damages the ability of sustainable development and the credibility of the government. Many imbalances and inadequacies in China’s economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development are mostly related to short-term behavior in some places. The main manifestations are as follows: short-term policy, “policy ends when policy-makers leave”; short-term investment promotion; short-term industrial layout, resulting in slow structural adjustment; short-term financial behavior, social and livelihood arrears, deficit spending and “land finance”; normalization of local protection, hinderance to enterprise competitiveness; rampant vanity projects wasting manpower, money and public resources; as well as over-exploiting resources and ineffective environmental protection. We need to find the root causes in institutional mechanisms and accurately identify key points, breakthrough and governance paths. This paper suggests the following solutions to address the problem: strengthen the planning function of the Party Committee and the government; speed up planning and legislation; scientifically formulate the medium and long-term development plan; carry out accurate assessment, combining rewarding and accountability; extend the term of officials etc.

Key words: short term behavior, scientific planning, accurate assessment, motivation and accountability