Abstract: Central government’s special intergovernmental transfer payment or intergovernmental subsidy is the core institution designed to balance regional fiscal capabilities and equalize public services. Based on the data from Civil Affairs Departments, the findings of this study show that administrative factors such as the number of local jurisdictions, the number of the employees of the civil affairs departments and the provincial decentralization in civil affairs departments have significantly impacted the central government’s special item subsidy that the local government received, which indicates that departmental and bureaucratic interests have penetrated the allocation process of special purpose funds for civil affairs. Therefore, in order to improve the allocation work of China’s various special transfer payments, it is absolutely necessary to optimize political contents like the system besides the improvement of technical contents such as measurement and calculation. The important improvements include the following: further improving the tax sharing fiscal system, better matching the administrative power and the financial power of the governments at different levels, enhancing the transparency degree of the allocation and use of financial funds, facilitating mutual supervision and civil supervision, establishing and improving various accountability mechanisms such as political and administrative ones, and normalizing and institutionalizing such work as making statement beforehand and taking responsibility afterword, etc..

Key words: special item on civil affairs from central government; special transfer payment; civil affairs department; local administrative forces