A Study On The Formation Mechanism Of Grass-roots Formalism Under The Framework Of Pressure And Response

Since its establishment,the Communist Party of China(CPC)has been fighting against formalism.From the "Yan’an Rectification Movement" in the revolutionary period to the "Three Counter-movements" in the early days of the People’s Republic of China to the "Anti-Four Wind Movement" in the new period,the CPC’s firm determination to oppose formalism has been reflected.With the continuous development of China’s politics and society,as well as the downward shift in the focus of social governance,formalism at the grass-roots level gradually shows the characteristics of long-term,diversity and complexity,and increasingly becomes a major obstacle to the modernization of China’s governance system and governance capacity.Since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC),General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward in many speeches that all levels and departments should attach great importance to the improvement of style of work and correct the "Four Styles" led by "formalism and bureaucratism".The central government has also issued a series of documents on the issue of formalism,including the Opinions on Implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Instructions and Focusing on Refining Formalism and Bureaucracy.At the same time,the academic circles have also conducted in-depth research on the phenomenon of formalism at the grass-roots level in China,and put forward different opinions on the origin of the formalism problem.On the basis of the existing research,this paper attempts to study the formalism phenomenon in the process of grass-roots orientation inspection from the perspective of "pressure-response",that is,by analyzing the generation and transmission mechanism of superior pressure and the response mechanism of grass-roots government to pressure,so as to explore the root of grass-roots formalism.Through the field investigation of C town T village,the author found that the grass-roots formalism is mainly manifested in three aspects.One is when dealing with the superior inspection,there is temporary preparation,"inspection" to deal with the inspection and other formalistic problems;Second,in the inspection and assessment of the basic level,there is the problem of formalism that focuses on "material" and takes the result as the orientation;Third,in the transmission and implementation of top-down policies,there are formalism problems,such as a mountain of literature and meetings,and the implementation of meetings through meetings.These formalistic problems will not only affect the administrative efficiency of the grass-roots government,but also lead to the reduction of the government’s credibility,and then divorced from the masses.From the perspective of "pressure and response",this paper analyzes the process of orientation inspection at the grass-roots level,and finds that in the pressure transmission from top to bottom,the imbalance between the pressure imposed by superiors and the ability of grass-roots level to meet standards is the root cause of grass-roots formalism.At present,there is a governance pattern of responsibility isomorphism among Chinese governments.Under the background of pressure system,the higher level governments increase the task indicators from top to bottom and"throw the blame" on the responsibility layer by layer,which leads to the governance environment of high pressure and high responsibility at the grass-roots level.However,due to the reality that the grass-roots government has few resources,great responsibility and little power,it is weak in transforming the pressure from the superior.In order to avoid being held accountable by the superior,it will respond to the superior in a formalistic way.From the perspective of grass-roots officials,the pressure exerted from top to bottom is the objective factor that leads to formalism problems,while the response to avoid responsibility from bottom to top is the subjective factor that causes formalism problems.Under the dual influence of"pressure and response",the grass-roots formalism problems arise.