Abstract:

In recent years, under the impetus of social system reform and social governance innovation, the third party evaluation of government purchasing social services has emerged as an important force to strengthen the transfer of government functions, to improve the ability of social organizations and to promote the formation of cooperative governance mechanism about separation and unity of government and society. Based on the empirical study on the purchase of social services by the government in “S” city, which finds that the third party assessment has structural, legal, validity, moral and other risks in the practice of government procurement of social services. Above risks are closely related to disestablished structural status, the absence of legitimacy mechanism, unreflecting of the authority and less autonomy in the third party assessment practice. The most fundamental reason is the imbalance structural relationship between government and society. Therefore, the article tries to provide a new perspective to analyze the relationship between the government and social forces in the current government procurement of social services, and to explore the governing methods of multiple risks by reconstructing the structural position, reconstructing its legitimacy foundation, strengthening the authoritative characteristics, reflecting and strengthening the competence system in the third party evaluation. In conclusion, the article aims to explore a third party assessment model, which is moving toward division and solidarity between the government and society. The model may be the innovation initiatives, which reconstruct the structural relationship between government and society in grass-roots social governance.

Key words: government purchasing social services, third party assessment, risk generation, governing methods, separation and unity of government and society