Political Economy of the Change of Rural Public Service Supply in China: Development Stage and Government Behavior Framework

The insufficient supply of public services in rural areas has become an important shortcoming of the strategy of Rural Revitalization in the new era. Three main research paradigms of rural public service supply: fiscal paradigm, local development government paradigm and Governance Paradigm all neglect the macro-background of the development stage. The main contradictions are different in different stages of development. In terms of political economy, the focus of government work is different in different stages of development, and the corresponding government behavior is also different. As a result, the performance of public service supply is differentiated. Through the construction of the political and economic framework of rural public service supply at the stage of development, government behavior and supply performance, it is revealed that the urban-rural relationship has undergone the stage of formation, solidification and dissolution of the dual structure from the stage of Catching-up Strategy of China's economy, the stage of priority strategy of economic growth to the stage of high-quality economic development, and correspondingly, the change of government behavior from omnipotent government, developmental government to service-oriented government. From the perspective of supply mode, the performance of rural public service supply presents from the single supply of government to the weak supply of government, market and society, and then to the multi-strong supply dominated by government, Supply-oriented from city-oriented to city-oriented to deepening and structure-oriented (soft and hard services) to high-quality supply of Urban-Rural Coordination. Turning to the stage of high-quality economic development, we should strengthen the awareness that public service promotes growth as the driving force of economic growth in the new era, reverse the government's behavior to provide more and better public services, promote the high-quality supply of rural public services, and provide solid public service support for effectively promoting the strategy of rural revitalization.