Resource Allocation To Rural Areas And The Financial Proceduralism Of The Township

As the most basic level of national governance,township governments not only undertake the task of economic development,but also undertake a large number of livelihood services and social construction functions,and have been in a state of high load for a long time.After the reform of taxes and fees,the township governments lost the institutional path to draw financial resources from the rural society,and most of the towns and townships in the central and western regions were reduced to "eating finance",only spending on "eating",without spending on "affairs",and even borrowed money to maintain operation.In order to "ensure the basic livelihood,wages and operation expenditure",the state began to rely on the "line" system to transfer a large number of financial resources to the countryside from top to bottom in the form of special transfer payment funds,and the financial function of the township began to transform from "drawing" to "feeding" the rural society.In the academic circle,this process is also known as resources to the countryside.With the promotion of targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization strategies,more and more state resources have poured into rural society,and state power has gradually penetrated into rural society,regulating the power operation and governance transformation of towns and villages.Then,in practice,what impact does the resources sent to the countryside have on the power operation of township governments? What kind of governance behavior does this lead to? Focusing on these research problems,this study,bearing in mind the General Secretary’s requirement that "the majority of scientific and technological workers should write their papers on the land of the motherland and apply scientific and technological achievements in the great cause of realizing modernization",uses sociological research methods to conduct interdisciplinary research on management issues,and carries out field investigations in the townships of the cases for more than two months.It is found that the sending of resources to the countryside has shaped the power operation mode of the township government’s financial proceduralism,that is,the township government and its members,based on rational considerations,put the pursuit of procedural justice in the first place and exercise power according to the procedure.Under the influence of fiscal proceduralism,there exists the coexistence of standardized governance and formalism in township governance.Based on the perspective of fiscal sociology,this study analyzes the impact of the financial event of resources going to the countryside on the power operation mode of township government and township governance behavior,and puts forward the concept of "fiscal proceduralism".In the field research,the author found that after the tax reform,the township government lost the right to collect agricultural tax,agricultural special tax and a variety of non-budgetary expenses,township finance once faced the dilemma of making ends meet.In order to supervise the township financial revenue and expenditure,regulate the township financial revenue and expenditure behavior,the higher government implemented the township "township finance and county management" and the financial wage system of the supporting reform,resulting in the township "first-level finance" in name only,the fiscal "shell" trend is becoming more and more obvious.In the case of the serious "empty" of township finance,the resources sent to the countryside in the form of project system has become the backbone of the supply of rural social public services.It not only solves the core problem of public services-the fund problem,but also encourages the township government to operate around the project,and elevate the project "capture" and construction to the township center.With the resources sent to the countryside,resource allocation and use procedures are also sent to the countryside,in order to ensure the special purpose of the financial funds sent to the countryside and achieve the expected goals of the project.With the increasing scale of resources sent to the countryside,the township level has become the gathering place of all kinds of procedures.The restrictions and influences of procedures sent to the countryside on the power operation of the township government have become more and more great,and the informal operation of its formal power and the space for strategic flexibility have been gradually compressed.Under the influence of both resources and procedures sent to the countryside,the township government has changed its strategic power operation mode characterized by flexible execution,and gradually formed the financial procedural power operation mode which follows procedures and pursues procedural justice.In addition to the process to the countryside,accompanied by national resources to the countryside also bureaucratic supervision,it strengthens the township government’s financial proceduralism.As more and more national resources are sent to the countryside,in order to ensure that the financial resources sent to the countryside are used in accordance with standards,procedures and norms,bureaucratic supervision pays more and more attention to the supervision of norms and procedures,rather than only the supervision of results.From a practical point of view,the administrative supervision embedded in the process of sending resources to the countryside mainly has the following three forms: first,the power supervision of the Party committee,including discipline inspection and inspection;Administrative procedure supervision,including financial audit and department supervision;Third,target responsibility supervision,including the establishment and application of performance appraisal system.The administrative supervision to the countryside will embed the administrative supervision led by the accountability power into the township governance system,and put the township government in the supervision network formed by the power of the Party committee,administrative procedures and target responsibilities,so that the consequences of violating the procedural provisions can be predicted.In practice,the power operation mode of fiscal proceduralism leads to two diametrically opposite township governance behaviors: standardized governance and formalism.In the standardized governance,on the one hand,the township governance work of the "full center" and full coverage of assessment and supervision to promote the township government administration procedures,improve the township governance behavior of compliance level;On the other hand,the township government has strengthened the procedural control over the village organization by institutionalized means such as the stratification of village cadres,the refinement of village level work assessment and the "village finance and township management",which has improved the standardization level of village level organizations.However,the tension between the lack of township governance resources and standardized governance,coupled with the conflict between the triviality,tradition and non-standard of township governance affairs and the standardization and procedural requirements of financial proceduralism,makes township governments have to adopt the method of classified management to conduct formal governance of the governance affairs that can be completed or avoided through the process form,namely: Strive to do well in form,rather than substantive governance.Formal governance,that is,the formalism of township governance,it is specifically manifested as: meeting,document implementation work,ledger management and "going through the motions".Based on this,this thesis believes that resources sent to the countryside should give play to the integration function of the township government,give more project power to the township government,and enhance the autonomy of governance of the township government.To realize the matching of "duties,responsibilities and powers" of township governments,reasonably divide the scope of authority of township governments,promote the sinking of governance resources to township governments,and enhance the governance power of township governments;We should stimulate the self-governance capacity of rural society,adhere to the system of villager self-governance,and liberate village-level organizations from a large number of administrative affairs.