The Governance Transformation Of Local Government In The Urbanization Process

It is inevitable for human society towards modernization to experience urbanization, which is also the significant strategy of current economic and social development in China. The urbanization process is closely related to the corresponding governance transition of local government, namely the urbanization process also include governance transition of local government on a certain degree.Foreign or home scholars have conducted considerable research which focus on the problems of urbanization and the governance of local government. Most research agree that local government governance is one of the most important factors for urbanization, while urbanization is one of the most essential conditions for local government governance as well. However, most literature is inclined to interpret the governance transition of local government from the perspective of urbanization, or to explain the urbanization process based on local government governance view. Actually, not only does urbanization effect local governance, but the governance transition of local government is also a part of urbanization process, which means that they are marked with each other. We should study on the relative problems from some more comprehensive perspectives. Hence, the paper would propose an analytical framework:the governance transition of local government in the process of urbanization. Local government would strengthen its own essential functions as public service and social management, and even transcend as well as innovate the present system and mechanism in the urbanization process. Currently, local government should transfer its function based on the coordinative development among industry, space and population, and then innovate the governance system and mechanism by means of reconstruction the relationship among government, market and society in order to response to as well as promote urbanization.We select the urbanization experience of some prior areas for case studies such as Cixi city Zhejiang Province, based on its advantage to foreshow the development of the others. The study of Cixi case proves the framework's presupposition, while there is some particularity for Cixi case, which is more complicated than the framework's presupposition. Therefore, we would do a comparative study on the cases of Cixi and Nanchuan district Chongqing city, from which we try to explore the applicability of the framework and conclude its applicable conditions. On the basis of that, we would improve and extend the framework.The governance transition of local government in urbanization context is restricted to some practical factors that would be classified as four categories. We consider resources endowment, industry structure, organic composition of capital and geography landforms as current conditions, and the tendency of economic and social development as future conditions, and globalization, national policies and the linkage of cross-region policies as macro-conditions, and the social heterogeneity, the establishment of the public status of market and social subject as micro conditions. Not only should the local government transform the way of governance from actual conditions, but also alters the objective conditions which would obtain more opportunities for the modern transformation of its own governance.