中國大陸自1970年代末開始，進行了獨具特色的分權化治理改革模式，經濟上地方獲得了較大的自主權，惟政治上仍然維持垂直的管理體系。本研究主要目的在於探討這種分權治理模式下中央和地方關係對公共服務的影響，並以農村義務教育為例進行驗證。研究發現，由於權責不對等，公共服務的供需矛盾必須反映到中央政府，才能夠通過自上而下的政治過程解決矛盾。然而，中央所制定的統一政策是很難適應全國各地不同的經濟社會發展情況，各地層出不窮的不同矛盾現象又讓中央政府不斷地去調整自己的政策，造成政策的反復。推動社會參與公共服務的決策過程，是現今中國大陸政治經濟發展過程中亟需解決的一個關鍵課題。

A special decentralization of governance reform was implemented in Mainland China at the end of the 1970s. This reform gave local government more decision power in the matters of economic, but politics still maintains the vertical management system. The present study intends to discuss the effect of relationship between central and local government on the provision of public service, as in the case of compulsory education in rural areas. The empirical finding suggests that only when the central government gets the information of imbalance between supply and demand of public service, then the problem can be solved by the political process from top to bottom, However, the unified policies made by the central government are often not suitable to local governments with different economic and social conditions. This paradoxical situation needs the central government to persistently adjust policies, thus participation of the society in the decision making regarding public service provision is a very important in the development process of China's political economy.