| China has generally entered into a development stage when industry promotes agriculture and urban area elevates rural area.It is the time that rural modernization process is entering into high speed development and that the development of villager autonomy comes into a corner.In the current academic circle concerning agriculture,rural areas and farmers,the question "what will villager autonomy be?" may be focused with most of attention.During researching this question,it always encourage people to suppose what villager autonomy should be like.However,when we are considering the foresaid questions,there is another question worth particular attention,"what on earth is villager autonomy?" What is villagers committee in our conception? What should the villagers committee do and what has it done? These questions are the possible keys to understand what on earth villager autonomy is.The article is going to discuss the function system of villagers committee based on above questions.Theoretically,as the society is changing and advancing ceaselessly,it is inevitable that the legal system reflecting and adjusting social relationship is ought to change correspondingly.However, reviewing the provisions on the functions of villagers committee in the current legislation,we can find that the legislation remains unchanged with high stability for many years.It is more exact to say the legislation fails to advance with the times and response to the demand of rural modernization process than ascribe it to its high flexibility and comprehensive coverage.To achieve rational setting of the functions of villagers committee,this research concerning function reform of villagers committee is to analyze the generating logic of villagers committee from a historical perspective,especially the development history and function transformation process of village-level organization since the country was founded;point out problems existing in the provisions on functions of villagers committee in the legislation according to the relevant articles in the current laws;study emerging issues during implementing the function of villagers committee in the new situation from the aspect of practices of villager autonomy;put forward macroscopic route and specific methods for the function reform of villagers committee.In terms of process history,village-level organizations in China has a long history of development.Reviewing the process of its establishment and function transition especially in the grass-roots regime consolidation period,collectivization movement period,villager autonomy construction period and villager autonomy popularization period,we can find that their establishment, development and function setting in various periods as well as government intervene with rural society are adapted to the overall development plan of state or directly decided upon the needs of state. With this generating and development logic,we further believe that the power of state in the rural areas will get strengthened increasingly through new countryside construction,urbanization construction and various projects related to the agriculture and rural reform.As a result,the context of villager autonomy is likely to change and the functions of villagers committee will be adjusted inevitably.However,the adjustment of functions of villagers committee will be directed to the problems existing in the relevant provisions of current legislation.Based on the assessment of legislation,we have comparatively analyzed the provisions concerning functions of villagers committee specified in both central and local legislation as well as in implementation measures for both trial laws and formal laws by provincial governments.We have found:Firstly,the nature of villagers committee expressed by central legislation fails to keep consistent in various legal documents;guiding and assisting relationship exists between the village government and villagers committee as well as between township government and villagers committee;the setting of some functions in the legislation fails to fully considerate whether it is applicable to villagers committee;expression of a few legal articles is ambiguous,which brings a negatively effect on their implementation and hurts the authoritative ad effectiveness of central legislation.Secondly,on the one hand,implementation measures for the Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the People' Republic of China provided by provincial government mainly repeat the content of the Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the People' Republic of China and don't comprehensively specify the implementation approaches,methods and procedures,which fails to achieve the "localization" of central legislation.On the other hand,there are few differences of function provisions between various provinces.Most implementation measures can't reflect local characteristics.In addition, although agricultural policies and rural environment have changed a lot in the past more than ten years,there are minor differences of function provisions between implementation measures for trial laws and formal laws respectively.It fails to advance function provisions with times.Thirdly,based on the analysis on other local legislation exclusive of implementation measures,we believe that other local laws and regulations contribute much more than the implementation measures in terms of making the functions of villagers committee concrete and operable;however,it increases the working capacity of villagers committee during reifying superordinate legislation and concurrently strengthens administrative agent's control on villagers committee.Finally,based on the study and comparison of cadre assessment measures,we can find that local regulations in this regard are extendable and concrete.However,take the village cadre assessment measures published by Weitang town of Jiashan county in Zhejiang province for example,major problems are as follows:It fails to cover the entire functions formulated by the central legislation;It extends the function scope of villagers committee;It dissimilates the function prescribed in central legislation.Under such legislation situation,function system of villagers committee has following characteristics:"fulgent" framework;dispersive legislation;great polarization;execution of the functions of villagers committee relies on an administrative driving mode on the basis of administrative legislation.In this regard,we believe that these characteristics may be ascribed to the great dependence on the state power during the system establishment of rural society.Under this pre-condition,lack of communication exists between system providers and requestors.Under the background of legislation game,every government department tries to achieve an even share of benefits.Township administration suppressing village autonomy as well as subordinate legislation conflicting with superordinate legislation may be a common phenomenon under the pressure from the system.In addition,China is in a dilemma of legislation attitude and value choice during transitional period,which may possibly contribute to the foresaid characteristics.Apart from the defects of textual system,it shall pay attention to the significant impact of environment transition on the function execution of villagers committee.In terms of the impact of population mobility,population outmigration results in "brain drain" and "decline in the level" of the organization of villagers committee.Villagers are often absent from democratic management and show low-keyed interests.When combining village organization,it often fails to achieve expected effect.Because of population immigration,autonomy concepts,including self management,and enclosed ideas expressed by plenty of personalism functions of villagers committee which are set based on these concepts can't meet the needs of urbanization any more.From the perspective of legislation,it shall extend various territorialism functions of villagers committee, directing to the "non-involvement" and "disorderly management" emerged in the population immigration.In terms of reform of taxes and charges,there are three opinions existing in academic cycle on whether the character of villagers committee shall be developed in a regression,evolution or decline manner in post agricultural taxes period.However,we believe that villagers committee is unlikely to regress to its original status or completely lost itself in a short time.This reform will bring about following impacts on the function implementation of villagers committee:it will create a more relaxed environment;it will improve the township-village relationship as well as cadres relationship; it will reduce villagers committee's function concerning charges.Settlement of some rural problems, including difficulty in the operation of villagers committee,depends on the government.Therefore,it is not necessary to make excessive anticipation about the positive and negative impacts on the function implementation of villagers committee arising from the reform of taxes and chargesMoreover,in the process of modernization,class differentiation degrades the integration capacity of villagers committee.Because of urbanization,villagers committee,on behalf of farmers,fails to completely fulfill some functions with respect to communicating and negotiating with government as well as organizing the implementation of village planning.Marketization speeds up the development of rural collective enterprises.However,with regard to administration system,since villagers committee,on behalf of rural collective economic organizations,makes decision on many major and important issues related to collective economy,operational efficiency of the economy is restricted.So,how to improve and perfect the function system of villagers committee in the course of reform and legislation improvement?Seen from the macroscopical route,on the issue of town and village relationship,this paper holds that,under the current condition,restriction to be encountered during villagers committee completely getting rid of government intervene surpasses the contingent value of the thins itself.With regard to the phase target for the reform of villagers committee,it shall maintain the compatible state of character and function and meanwhile dedicate to realizing the effective compatibility.A real independence can be deemed as the ultimate result of long-term gradual reform.As the township-village relationship gets closer and closer,organic linking between township administration and villager autonomy can be achieved by improving administrative correction mechanism, strengthening responsibility system and enhancing the democracy of administrative procedure. Whether villagers committee enjoys the legal person status doesn't matter much to the rural modernization process and the function reform of villagers committee.For the relation of villagers committee and enterprises,transition from combination to separation is rational choice no matter from the aspects of self discrepancy,rapid growth trend of collective economy,needs of rural democracy construction,demands for improving village-level organization or from the aspect of reliving burden of the function of villagers committee.Meanwhile,during the function reform of villagers committee,one the one hand,the existence of four contradictions determines that rural civil organizations are the most reliable path to realize the function burden relief;one the other hand,since the civil force is limited and finite,it determines that the establishment of rural civil organizations essentially belongs to "structural system",with "joint efforts of official and people" as its mode.In this context,civil organizations have to not only assume administrative functions currently undertaken by villagers committee but also depend on the government or accept the management of government departments.Therefore,inevitably,these organizations have similar or even the same generating and developing path with villagers committee. "Administration removal" can't be thoroughly avoided.When talking about the specific implementation patch,firstly,villagers committee shall not take the whole responsibility for handling rural public affairs and public utility.On the one hand,it is very difficult to determine the connotation and extension of rural public affairs and public utility.One the other hand,villagers committee is not so competent to organize and implement this function.In the context of villager autonomy,there is an increasing gap between rural and urban on the development of public affairs and public utility.Regional development presents an unbalanced situation.Therefore, the state shall support the development of public affairs and public utility in rural area by taking measures such as changing mechanism and increasing investment.In terms of legislation,it shall alleviate the related functions of villagers committee.Secondly,it shall further improve the legislation on township-village relationship.At present, there are 31 provincial administration units in the mainland,among which 27 units have formulated measures for the implementation of Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the People' Republic of China.It regulates the township-village relationship within the scope of villager autonomy in four different ways.However,there is still much room for improvement.To promote the legalization of township-village relationship,we believe:it shall eliminate unnecessary differences existing in provincial legislation and conflicts with uniform legislation,add articles concerning responsibilities, define relevant guiding and assisting matters and approaches;meanwhile,the path for improving the legislation on township-village relationship is to supplement the current Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the People' Republic of China with corresponding articles rather than work out special legislation on this point.Thirdly,it shall reify the legislation on township-village relationship.In order to endow villagers committee with necessary economic management functions and concurrently meet the needs of rural economic development,we believe that these functions endowed shall be macroscopic and indirect.During the legislation,economic functions may include:(1) supervising the implementation of policies,laws and regulations by the rural collective organizations as well as the implementation of villager meeting,resolutions of villager representative meeting,rules and regulations for the village, villager pledges and charters of villager autonomy;(2) attending important meetings held by rural collective organizations and airing opinions on major investment;(3) checking and approving the financial documents submitted by collective organizations and claiming materials for the transparency of village affairs;(4) collecting and expressing villagers' opinions,putting forward suggestions for the improvement and development of collective organizations,and reporting problems to the government. Accordingly,collective organizations shall respect the legal status of villagers committee and paying relevant charges needed for the public affairs and public utility in accordance with the requirement in the course of independent operation and accounting.Fourthly,it shall revise or abolish improper functions in central legislation and improve literal expression.We maintain that function enumeration of villagers committee in the provincial implementation measures can be considered to be deleted.Other local rules and regulations shall define the auxiliary administrative functions of villagers committee into the scope of "assistance".Fifthly,it shall propel the reform of relevant system of villagers committee.With respect to legislation,the question whether members of villagers committee engage in production may be left to local legislation for decision on condition that the number of members is uniformly specified. Independent supervising organizations parallel to villagers committee shall be established through villager meetings according to the actual condition and villagers' opinions,with relevant articles to be added for perfecting the Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the People' Republic of China. State shall motivate villagers committee to actively implement their functions by means of leveling up the treatment of village cadres.Meanwhile,it shall further improve the approaches for driving the functions of villagers committee and strengthen the management and normalization of village cadre assessment.
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