Cross The Turningpoint: A Study Of Risks And Countermeasures For Local Governments In The Accelerating Period Of Urbanization

Urbanization is an important part in Socialist Modernization Construction, with building mature urban society as a significant mission in the Primary Stage of Chinese Socialist Construction.With the deepening reform of Chinese market economic system and the acceleration of urbanization,inevitable market malfunction and government mismanagement are posing serious problems for urban development,which will bring huge risks to government reigning and the construction of harmonious society.The period from 1996 to 2030 is the acceleration period of urbanization in China.In such a period,prominent social issues will be directed from rural area to cities,and local governments,as the organizers and operators of Chinese characteristic socialist development,are facing various risks.One of the biggest risks is whether governments can deal with scientifically those risks and cross the turning point:the change of the gap between urban and rural area,between the rich and the poor,from a dramatic broadening to gradual narrowing;the change of unstable social factors from a maximum degree to gradual mitigation. In accordance with these changes,the risks in urbanization for society and governments will increasingly become the crucial and difficult issues in the management of governments.The biggest risk boils down to whether China can enter mature urban society sustainablely and steadily within about 20 years.Since the local governments are the operators of the national urbanization strategy,they are directly bearing the risks,and have the responsibility to deal with them.Risks for governments are decided by social structure,government strategies,and policy implementation;accordingly,they can be dealt with from these three aspects.Modern urbanization needs suitable political,economic,cultural and social resources.Currently,in the organization and guidance of urbanization,local governments have noticeable advantages in political and economic resources, but also confront with the restriction of some unfavorable factors in the structure of political,economic,cultural,social and administerial systems.To steadily enter mature urban society within expectant period,China must gradually reform the relationship between governments at different levels,infiltratively transform the urban-rural dual structure in cities,persist in the collective ownership and household management of rural land,and insist on the leadership of governments in urbanization.Scientific development concept is currently a basic strategy in guiding the establishment and implementation of strategies for urbanization of our country. The basic embodiment of scientific development concept in strategies for urbanization is aiming to strike a balance between structures of urban systems, between rural and urban development,between urban and economic development,between improvement of urban quality and enlargement of urban size,between urban social and economic development.To achieve these goals, the following actions must be taken.First,the vertical and horizontal connection of city planning must be strengthened;balance be made between market system and local governments in allocating materials;cooperating systems between city governments be intensified;in order to guarantee the balance between internal structures of urban systems.Second,the stability of agricultural production and provisionment must be guaranteed;rural integration be accelerated;system of land transfer be reformed;rural citizens be given equal status in participating urban development and sharing the fruit of urban development;in order to guarantee the balance between rural and urban development.Third,supervision of upper governments must be strengthened;the "personal rationality" of local governments(the choice of short-term benefits for local area) be restrained and local governments be stimulated to bring into play "collective rationality"; scientific development patterns in active improvement of urban quality and steady enlargement of urban size be insisted;in order to guarantee the balance between urban and economic development,and the balance between improvement of urban quality and enlargement of urban size.Last but not the least,considering the crucial status of urban social development in deciding the socialist direction of urbanization of our country,it's essential that social development be made a political responsibility of local governments in order to guarantee the balance between the social and economic development of cities.If there is a serious unbalance between these five aspects,not only urbanization will not be sustained but social turbulence might be induced as well,which will develop into serious political problem.At the level of policy implementation,local governments face risks in four aspects:production of space,games among colonies in new society,policy output,and competitions between city governments.Production of space is the fundamental material resource of urbanization,in which local governments have tremendous advantages in policies,interest,and administration,and at the same time are faced with huge risks in politics,finance,and law.To deal with various risks in the production of space,local governments have to cease the monopolization in land requisition and expropriation,and establish the balance of interests between correlative groups and national institutions in the circulation of lands.To deal with risks in the games of new society,local governments must adjust the systems and policies concerned,and avoid just scratching the surface of a problem.To deal with risks in reallocation of social resources and social administration concerned with policy output,many local governments already have material condition to effectively break them,and the key is to improve their administerial skills in policy making and implementation.To deal with risks in vicious competition between city governments in urbanization,which are actually the manifest of malfunction of market mechanism,local governments must put the centralization mechanism into full play,and strengthen the social check and balance mechanism,in order to effectively regulate market mechanism and realize the organic interactions between social units,democracy,and market.In general,local governments must be guided by the scientific development concept to manage the risks in urbanization from the levels of structure transformation,strategy implementation,and policy circulation,to smoothly cross the historic turning points and get through the acceleration of urbanization, and enter mature city society.