With the development of society & economy and improvement of people's living standards, people's demand on public services is taking on a consistently increasing trend. People, who have settled their food and clothing problems, not only demand more on kinds and amount of public service, but also more on quality of that. In this context, it is inevitable to build service-oriented government to meet the increasing requirements on social public service. Township government is the enforcement agency of township people's congress, and is the most basic-level administrative division. In the perspective of status and function, township government holds most responsibilities in rural executive affairs because it is the terminal part in China's government system, linking closely with vast villages and rural people. It also has special effect on maintaining political management, providing social service and organizing economic construction. As a result, it brings a profound historical and actual meaning on how to build a service-oriented functional structure on the terminal of government system.Taking township governments after foundation of the nation as a research unit, this paper uses the methods of documentation and history research, comparison approach and practice study to analyze the specific development path of township governments'functions and reforms, and on the base of the theory of central-local relations, national-social relations, governmental-market relations and the principle of structural functionalism, it points out the historical necessity of building service-oriented township government, extracts the definition and characteristics, analyses the recent condition challenges for building service-oriented township government, and then puts forward the correspondent reform model in order to provide theoretical and practice reference for constructing a new socialist countryside.From the basic course of township government reform after 1949, township government is versatile between 1949 and 1978, which holds a wide range of responsibilities without independence. Since the carry-out of reform and opening-up policy, township government expands its motivation of developing economy and improves its self-determination ability with the establishment of system of dividing taxes. However, with its direct interference in market economy, the government diverts its public service-oriented road, turning into a development-type government. In such mode, the economic development becomes the focus of work, forming an"extruding"effect on social public service and the resource used for social development also being reduced correspondently. As a result, township government is not able to meet the need of public service and products from people, or to gain political support from them.With the advent of the 21st century, the advancement of tax reform, cancellation of agriculture tax and the further development of residential society gradually change the allocating situation of power, economic and other resources in original township political eco-system, reconstruct the framework of state-society relation in township-level. It seems more obvious about the disadvantages to development-type government and develops an increasingly demanding about the shift into service-oriented government. It holds historical certainty to establish service-oriented government for it not only overpasses typical township features, but also breaks through existing reform practice, regarded as outcome in the context of central-local, governmental-marketing and national-social relation.As the lowest-level government, service-oriented township government has its own particularity. Generally speaking, service-oriented township government is one kind of government that it can improve living condition and accelerate social development in rural area, supply public service for peasants, and enlarge democratic participation in town. And it should have reasonable relationship between duty and privilege, flexible organization and construction, moderate power for decision-making and public participation of people, and also be guided by peasants'public demands.However, until now, the configuration of construct and staff in town government is still arranged by conditional way, the innovation of town government system is very little, and the relationship between duty and financial powers is not suitable. Furthermore, the evaluation system for performance is not effective, and the soft and hard condition in town is so bad. Thus, it cannot perform its function completely. As to reform issues of township government, some scholars bring forward several plans, such as"Strengthening the construction of township government to build it as first-level completed or total rural-based government organization, even extending to village-grade organization","weakening of township government, as a detached agency of county government, namely'county administration, township detached'","establish a township-level self-administrating mode with the cooperation of officers and civilians","repeal township government and carry out township self-government"and so on. However, those people pay less attention to an overall environment of township government under various reform modes. In fact, the problems come across more by township government lie in macroscopical system. In other words, it is the existing unreasonable relations between center & localness, nation & society and government & market that result into the current difficult situation for township government. Considering that the reform of township government may be set in these three relations, the author thinks that the reform path of township government can be summarized by reducing economic function and strengthening service function, thus turning it into service-oriented township government which is able to reflect residents'need, meet the participation demand from residents, provide basic public service and promote the social development.In order to construct service-oriented government, we should put it into the consideration of entire China's governmental reform. On one hand, the reform of township government cannot be separated from the whole governmental system; on the other side, township governments have its own characteristics and hold its featured responsibility in the whole strategy. So the reform model of service-oriented government should be considered through system view and also be set corresponding to its own structure and functions. We may think of this issue by two paths. Firstly, it is external relation level that the definition of service-oriented government ought to be reasonably considered from central-local, governmental-marketing and national-social level. Secondly, we should define the function and institution of township government from structural functionalism. Only by combining relation and main body, it can be true to turn township government to real service-oriented government. From this perspective, the author defines it as the"relation-main body"reform model.The fate of the township government is closely connected with the overall reform of the Chinese government, and the township government has no success to speak of if it moves from the country's whole deployment, but this does not mean that the township government cannot reform or the reform accomplishes nothing. Just on the contrary, the township as a periphery of the government system, can display its independency and activity, for it is easier for a small boat to turn around. Therefore it can use the opportunity of the new rural reconstruction to take the lead to build a service-oriented government, which will be of great help for the advancement of the government's overall reform strategy.This paper will be divided into six chapters. Introduction of the paper briefly describes the technical information. Body part includes second to fifth chapters. Firstly, it analyzes the theoretical basis of building service-oriented township government by using theory of rural area development in Maxism, local governance theory, theory of relations between the state and society, theory of relations between the government and the market, system analysis theory, structure and functional theory as well as new public administration theory and so on to laid a theoretical foundation for building a service-oriented township government. Secondly, it straightens out the development course of the township government since 1949 until the present and points out that it is historically inevitable for the township government to change from the versatile government to the development government, and to the service-oriented government. Thirdly, it clarifies the basic content and features of township government. After analyzing the present condition of township government and challenges for building service-oriented township government, it summarizes recent explorations for building service-oriented town government in our country. Fourthly, it gives a reform model, namely"relation- main body"reform model, for building a service-oriented township government, which means that the external relations are combined with the main body building. On the basis of this model, the author makes researches on the basic path for construction of service-oriented township government. Conclusion of this paper gives a brief summary, pointing out issues and direction for the follow-up research. |