A Research On Chinese Administrative Divisions

In most cases, administrative divisions was considered to be a ruling and policy instrument, and accordingly correlational research is taken as a policy issue. Therefore, the theoretical level on the research of administrative divisions should to be elevated. Compared with other countries, administrative divisions played a more important role in China. So, in order to promote administrative divisions'research to be more in-depth and detailed, we should pay more attentions to theoretical research from the visual of transforming government roles based on political development and public governance mode changes.The basic purpose of this dissertation is to discover the law in administrative divisions from the relation between administrative division reforms and the key roles of government. A basic hypothesis of this dissertation is that there is a causal connection between administrative division reforms and the key roles of government, that is the fundamental object of administrative division reforms is decided by and subordinate to the key roles of government in different historical periods and states. The article verifies the basic hypothesis in the following three aspects:empirical summarization in history, theoretical support and reality reflection.Firstly, the fact that the fundamental object of administrative division reforms kept with the key roles of government in different historical periods is the empirical evidence for the basic hypothesis. In ancient China, the main role of the government was political rule. Therefore, the fundamental objective of administrative divisions was intended to strengthen the centralization of power, in order to consolidate the imperial power. In the early years of PRC, government's core task at all levels was to restore political order in the complicated situation. Consequently, in order to create necessary conditions for this work, the fundamental objective of administrative divisions was to strengthen central authority. Focusing on promoting the economic development was the main feature of Chinese governments from 1978. Therefore, administrative division reforms reflected strong economic orientation in this period. After World WarⅡ, local governments in most western countries began to pay great attention to governmental responsibilities of public service, and administrative division reforms in these countries reflected strong public service orientation correspondingly. Thus public service and reduction of the cost governmental administration, efficiency and equality was always the main gauge of reforms.Secondly, governmental roles as the basis of administrative divisions are the theoretical evidence for the basic hypothesis. Public authority extended to all territory and residents is one of the preconditions for a government to perform its roles effectively. Consequently, it is necessary to divide its territory into different districts, and then establish local government systems. Will look from this, administrative divisions is the essential measures to effectively perform governmental roles, which is the highest group's political aim. Therefore, administrative division reforms must be in line with the governmental roles in different historical periods and states.Thirdly, in the reality, a series of actual reflections about the relations between administrative division reform and the key roles of government further verifies the basic hypothesis. First, administrative divisions is the foundation of establishing and perfecting local government system; second, administrative divisions is a primary means to strengthen central government controllability and adjust longitudinal intergovernmental relations; third, a rational administrative division system is instrumental in promoting local governments to carry out theirs responsibilities of public service.The basic hypothesis is roundly validated by the above analysis. If we want to conclude the administrative division reform's rational basic guidelines in contemporary China, it is necessary to define governmental roles in an appropriate way. Establishing a service-oriented government means that the Chinese governments at various levels should transform their main responsibilities from promoting economic development directly to supplying public service. But, it doesn't mean political domination is becoming less and less important for governments. Theoretically, the State as the unity of the class benefit and public benefit decides governmental roles of political domination and social management as an organic whole. In reality, for a big power such as China, it is absolutely necessary to play administrative divisions' controllability properly, especially when the state's unification and political stability face a severe challenge. In view of the research above, this dissertation further put forwards the control—service orientation. This paradigm of study mainly includes two meanings: on the one hand, the main reform objectives of provincical districts' administrative division should be to strengthen the central government's controllability reasonably; on the other hand, the main criteria for the reforms below provincial districts are to reduce public service costs, improve supply efficiency and ensure equality.Finally, the control—service orientation is further appled to the practice of China's reform by putting forward some specific suggestions as follows. The reforms on provincial level should be to maintain stability, and enhance the big cities'political balance effect at the same time; in order to avoid Balkanization, the fundamental objective of the reform on metropolitan areas is to hold on single-center structure; municipal districts should be classified to suit their different responsibilities; Reducing public service and administrative costs, producing dimensions economy effect, and deciding on the optimum population size, should be the main criteria for the reforms on county level; a distinction should be made between universality and particularity about the reforms of villages and towns. It is a trend to merge most villages and towns into an agency which belongs to county government. In some developed areas, some towns usually with a higher urbanization level have the potential to be upgraded to cities.