自20世纪70年代以来,“回归市场”的浪潮在西方各国大规模兴起,尤其是英国的“私有化”运动以及美国从中央到地方的“公共服务外包”。其中,公共服务外包是指政府将原来本应由自己承担的公共服务职能,以合同的方式交由私人主体去完成。这种方式一方面并没有使政府放弃提供公共服务的职能,也未改变政府责任;另一方面又通过市场主体的竞争参与大大降低了运营成本,提高了服务质量,丰富了服务的内容。 Since the 1970s, the wave of “return to the market” has been on a large scale in many western countries, notably the “privatization” movement in the United Kingdom and the “public service outsourcing” of the United States from the central to the local governments. Among them, the public service outsourcing refers to the government will originally be supposed to assume the function of public service, by way of contract to the private subject to complete. On the one hand, this method did not make the government give up the function of providing public service, nor did it change the government responsibility. On the other hand, through the participation of market players, it greatly reduced the operation cost, improved the service quality and enriched the service content.