Extension Of The Principal-Agent Chain And Activation Of Participation:a Study On The Resource Allocation In Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Alleviating poverty,improving the living conditions of the impoverished population,and enhancing people’s well-being have always been the goals pursued by the Chinese Communist Party,reflecting the people-centered development philosophy.In 2020,China declared victory in eradicating absolute poverty,winning the battle against poverty and helping hundreds of millions of rural poor to escape poverty,providing a Chinese solution to the global poverty reduction cause.Behind this great victory,many issues deserve deep reflection.When the targeted poverty alleviation campaign entered the deep-water zone,how could the Party overcome problems such as the weakening trickle-down effect brought by developmental poverty alleviation,diminishing marginal utility of poverty alleviation resources,weak sustainability of poverty alleviation projects,re-impoverishment of those who had escaped poverty,and the dilemma of involution of poverty alleviation resource allocation to complete targeted poverty alleviation? How were poverty alleviation resources allocated,and how were they effectively allocated?The way of effective resource allocation in targeted poverty alleviation needs to be explored.This study first sorts out the evolution of China’s poverty alleviation resource allocation through a literature review,analyzes the current problems of targeted poverty alleviation resource allocation,and explores the causes of these problems.Through participatory observation,interviews,and case study methods,the research tracks the distribution and transmission process of resources in targeted poverty alleviation efforts,focusing on provincial-level administrative units’ assistance to impoverished villages.This study focuses on how resources can be effectively allocated in targeted poverty alleviation efforts.By employing principal-agent theory and participation theory as theoretical tools,an analytical framework is constructed,which consists of a top-down organizational control logic and a bottom-up grassroots empowerment logic for effective resource allocation.Through the extension way of the principal-agent chain,the village-based work team has opened up more accessible channels for information exchange related to poverty alleviation resources between village groups and villagers,created a more suitable platform for information resource exchange,broken the previously rigid and tight information transmission structure within the village,and overcome the information control monopolized by rural elites,thus minimizing the asymmetry of poverty alleviation resource information between the government and the demand side as much as possible.At the same time,the extension of the principal-agent chain also affects the distribution of control over targeted poverty alleviation resources at various levels of the organization.Changes in the allocation of goal-setting authority,incentive distribution authority,and inspection and acceptance authority enable the village-based work team to effectively set resource allocation goals from the top down,achieve incentive compatibility,control resource costs,reduce the risk of information distortion,shorten the distance of poverty alleviation resource transmission,reduce the waste of resources flowing between different levels,effectively control the implementation of poverty alleviation policies at the rural grassroots level,ensure the effective utilization of poverty alleviation resources,and improve resource allocation efficiency,contributing to the achievement of effective resource allocation.Under the extension of the principal-agent chain,a series of goal-setting rules,power distribution rules,and autonomous decision-making rules enter rural grassroots society.Power,institutions,and poverty alleviation resources sink along this chain and are input into villages,activating grassroots participation in the allocation of targeted poverty alleviation resources.The participation process develops various resource endowments,effectively reduces social exclusion,and effectively reduces the sense of deprivation among ordinary rural villagers,thereby activating the endogenous dynamics of rural grassroots society.The participation process improves the villagers’ ability to cope with poverty,develops grassroots practical poverty alleviation abilities and political life abilities,and enhances villagers’ self-efficacy,self-management awareness,and collective consciousness,increasing support for collective decision-making and promoting the connection of public interests in the village.It also promotes the integration process of rural grassroots society and facilitates the reconstruction of the village community.Subsequently,the positive changes generated in the activation of participation dimension re-enter the extension of the principal-agent chain dimension,and all the above factors contribute to the new round of agents’ poverty alleviation resource allocation and the implementation of targeted poverty alleviation work in villages.Activating participation can stimulate farmers’ endogenous motivation,practical ability,and creativity from the grassroots level upward,effectively improve resource allocation efficiency,and contribute to achieving effective resource allocation.The combination of the extension of the principal-agent chain and the activation of participation ways involves first the input of organizational control logic,followed by the feedback of grassroots empowerment logic.The top-down principal-agent chain extension and the bottom-up activation participation form a circular loop,completing a cycle from higher-level government organizations to the grassroots and then back to higher-level government.This effectively achieves the accurate targeting of poverty alleviation resources,significantly improves resource allocation efficiency,and realizes the effective allocation of targeted poverty alleviation resources.