The Situation And Process Of Township Cadres’ Behavior

Through discussing the phenomenon of township cadres’behavior in order to help people understand the real administrative activities in China, this article will invigorate more scholars to think about whether the Western theories are suitable for China and promote Chinese public administration localization.There are two reasons for selecting this topic. The first reason is that there is a big gap between the theory and the township cadres’actual practice in daily life. Chinese public administration theory is based on foreign administration theories, especially the American public administration theory. During the period of rapid development of China, traditional public administration theory is criticized both by scholars and the public. The second reason is that the public have a wrong opinion that the central government is good but the local government is bad in China and government or the entire public administrative system has been seen as closed system. This view ignores the impact of external environment on the public administrative organizations and its members. From this perspective, it is difficult to understand the real local government in China.As a qualitative study, an in-depth field research has already been carried out in a township government in northern China from August 2009 to April 2010, while a large number of first-hand information on township cadre’s behaviors has been obtained using methods like participant observation, interviews and other tools. Methodologies like Static code analysis, narrative analysis, comparative analysis, process-Event Analysis and other methodologies have been used to analyze this information.Based on the voluntaristic theory of action from Parsons, this article presents a new framework for analysis township cadre’s behavior. Individual action in organizations will be broken down into four basic elements like context, actors, tools and results. In addition to this study, the "situation-rational man" and the "double structure" are two presuppositions at this research.In chapter three, the article presents the evolution of external environment of the township government in a transition period, which starts from closed homogeneity to open heterogeneous, and from ethical standard to interests Standard. The article also pays attention to the Chinese political system which directly affects the township cadre’s behavior. The "pressure-type" political system and farmers’non-institutionalized political participation are the basic features of local political environment. In addition, the article focuses on the "relationship capital" and the imbalance of resource allocation. In the first section of chapter four, we discuss the formal rules, which consists of "article" and "block" rule, "Party "and "political" rule, "indicators" rule and "central task" rule, and their consequences, named "required behavior" which includes pre-set task-based organizations, conferences and notification, inspection and should check, appraisal and summary. Then, we describes the informal rules related with "human law", "face", "promotion capital", and "relationship art" and their consequences, named "strategic behavior", which includes institutional lying, responsibility avoidance and relationships work in the second section of Chapter four.In the chapter five, this paper analyzes the process of cadres’behavior in areas of internalization and social exchange. In area of internalization, a new framework which is divided into three sub-processes, such as initial recognition, correction and maintenance for answering the question of "How does the situation been internalized by township cadres? " is set up in perspective of micro-sociology. In area of social exchange, this paper builds a new model, which includes demand awareness, supply-side search, exchange capacity display, access and return, based on the Blau’s social exchange process model.The central conclusions of this study are the following.Firstly, as the result of integration of "Locality" and "Bureaucratic", township cadres often operate on formal power in an informal way which is the general characteristic of the township cadres’behavior. Being farmers before entering the bureaucracy, most of the township cadres highly appreciate the rules of local society. But after entering the bureaucracy, they start to accept constraints from the rules of bureaucracy and gradually recognize their "cadre identity ", though they cannot completely get rid of local social identities.Secondly, the way township cadres understand and weigh the situation influences the action they choose. They can clearly recognize relations between the situation and their future situation, and have a strong intrinsic motivation to know it for adjusting their behaviors. These situations which include the external environment and internal rules have brought great pressures on the township cadres who do not have sufficient legal authority and capacity to alleviate those pressures. Fortunately, the unique local culture and informal rules in the township government provide enough space for township cadres to choose their behavior strategically.Thirdly, "Rules Alternative" is a Common phenomenon within township government. We found that the informal rules, not the formal rules, play a major role in regulating the township cadres’behavior. These informal rules are invisible and essentially the principle of social relations instead of rules of public bureaucracy.As the direct consequence of the "Rules Alternative", "dual administration" is the other common phenomenon and the secret mechanism of township cadre’s behavior within township government. On the one hand, considering the formal organizational system, township cadres present a formal specification for the public administrative activities which are the rational constructions of national power on the local community. On the other hand, the informal operation shows a huge power space which is created and maintained by township cadres as a hidden text. It is another perspective for people understanding the township government and its cadres.Fourthly, township cadres are being in a complex situation with many contradictions and conflicts currently which mainly manifest in the form of conflicts between "rights "and "Responsibility", the "Administration" and "Political". The first major conflict comes from the far more pressure than the resources township which township cadres have. The phenomenon of "political" and "Administration" departing from each other, in essence, is the second major conflict between township government’s "value pursuit" and "efficiency pursuit". On the one hand, improving the bureaucratic system is the need of national politics. Central government is trying to further control the township cadre’s behavior through the improvement of bureaucracy in order to obtain the external legitimacy and achieve the value pursuit. On the other hand, as the primary administrative body, the township government should respond to a variety of ad hoc task, unexpected events, local community with a high degree of complexity and uncertainty. Township cadres have to break the bureaucracy’s operating rules and achieve the Efficiency Pursuit. Obviously, these behaviors have deviated from the formal rules.Fifthly, township cadres’ behavior reflect the "administrative absorption of society" rather than the model of civil society or corporatism. This is because, on the one hand, the central government is still trying to strengthen the control of local community by the township government and cadres. On the other hand, although more and more rural self-government organizations are established, they still under the control by township government. For example, township cadres participate in the activities of these self-government organizations through private social relations. For more funding and project support, self-government organizations should resort to political resources which are held by township cadres. Therefore, whether on economic or political, rural self-government organizations are still depending on the township government, which is called "function alternative". "Control" and "function alternative" are two core mechanisms of "administrative absorption of society".Contributions of this paper are following. Firstly, based on the theory of individual behavior from Parsons, Blau and other scholars, this paper builds a new framework for analysis and interpretation of township cadre’s behavior. Secondly, this study improves Chinese public administration research. For example, this paper studies the external environment and internal formal or informal rules in the township government, and studies how these situations affect the cadre’s behavior and presents the process of internalization of environmental and social exchange. The article also explains the theoretical logic behind the township cadres’behavior. Thirdly, this thesis studies on the relationship between "structure" and "behavior" in essence. Therefore, it has enriched the study in area of Chinese public administration. Finally, it presents a real, lively township government through researching cadres’behavior, and provides a wealth of empirical material for the study of Chinese governmental organizations.Since the difference between cadres’behavior and spaces cannot be ignored, especially in China, this article does not address all the issues on township cadres’ behaviors while does not cover all the integrated features of township cadres. The author believes, however, that this research provides an important reference for understanding certain features of the present township government and its cadre’s behavior.