Assess the efficacy of China’s Inter-provincial Government Services policy: A quantitative evaluation based on PMC-Index model

To face with the challenges of governance in the digital age, such as insufficient coordination between regional governments and low quality and efficiency of government services, China has proposed the Inter-provincial Government Services Policy. The policy is capable of realizing the government's ability to handle service matters for the public in different regions, thus facilitating the regional government's coordination and upgrading the level of government services. This paper collects and organizes the texts of 28 Inter-provincial Government Services policies, and uses ROSTCM6 text mining software to screen and identify the policy text content. Then a quantitative evaluation method based on the PMC model is proposed to examine the consistency and efficacy of the policy in this paper. The results show that: (a) The policy design is generally considered to be rational, with the majority of policies rated as excellent and a few rated as acceptable. There are no policies considered bad or perfect. From a certain point of view, these policies show obvious advantages in terms of policy nature, policy content and policy function. (b) The equilibrium of various policy indicators implies a high level of policy consistency. It indicates the overall coherence and coordination of the policies, contributing to enhanced predictability, credibility, and operationalization of policies, thereby establishing the foundation for their effective implementation. (c) There are still several weak points with the current policies, including the narrow scope of areas, the lack of medium- and long-term planning, and the insufficiently scientific nature of the instruments, evaluations and citations. This paper presents optimization recommendations aimed at addressing the aforementioned issues, which include expanding the scope of the policy, bolstering the long-term impact of the policy, and enhancing the quality of decision-making.