Rural Authority And The Integration Of Village

The economic reform of household contract responsibility system and the building of market economy institution and the political reform centred on villagers’ self-governance have profoundly changed rural society as a whole. Violent social differentiation prompts great changing of traditional social integration mechanism. In fact, the social change in rural china performed totally different in different area and organization.The appearance of new type of force who self-employed and private entrepreneurs mastering production materials does not just have an economic significance; the previous village power order is also undergoing a change or even a reconstruction, because of them. This dissertation focuses on if it is feasible for the private-enterprise-led village integration and why it could be and its future.This dissertation, based on field surveys on villages in southwestern Shanxi Province and a participant observation, combined with relevant information and data obtained from in-depth interviews and investigation, has conducted a thorough study on the structure of village authority and its changes. With the authority issues in rural local order as a starting point, this dissertation does a research on the birth and its operation of Association of Private Entrepreneurs in Village H to show the internal interactive mechanism and vivid picture of different authorities in rural communities governance.This paper attempts to answer the following questions:1. how does a village-level organization of individual private entrepreneurs come into being?2. How does such a local organization build its authority?3. What kind of authority structure will be formed for the interaction between such an organization and the formal organizations and local government? What are the action logic and mechanism of all involved actors in different authority structures? Based on the discussion mentioned above, this dissertation shows the path of integration and infrastructure for private entrepreneur-led village integration.The endogenous nature of Village H, its path to industrialization via de-collectivization and relative centralized residence all give birth to an organization of private entrepreneurs. Association of Private Entrepreneurs in Village H based on collaborative networks and promoted by village elites, is set up spontaneously by entrepreneurs. It is a cooperative organization,which possess economic function and social function, industry and locality at the same time.The Association which was a cooperative organization first,it has gradually grown into an alternative functional organization and an intermediary service organization for the purpose of maintaining "Another Order".Objectively speaking, the Association integration in village with complicated motive is not weak, but it is lack of solid foundation.With a reputation mechanism and actual needs as bases, the Association provides public goods as well as livelihood opportunities, and takes advantage of the symbolic role of economic resources to build its authority.Its accessory absorption features enhance its social function in dispute resolution in the village and ability to mobilize collective action. As a result, Association of Private Entrepreneurs becomes an alternative functional organization in case of loss of formal village organization.On the surface, the lack of participation of the Association and self-employed and private business owners in the institutionalization of village governance does not affect the promotion of democracy in the village. But the Association has a non-institutionalized behavior, especially in the control of local land resources, and it works together with the village cadres to implement "the authoritative autonomy", which have a great influence on the substance of village self-government. The diverse authority structure in Village H does not bring good governance, but the decline and privatization of public authority. The Association conducts an interaction with local governments in privatized-institution environment, and the local government adopts a selective management pattern to provide room for the survival and development of the Association’s autonomy. The Association and the local government, through the giving and seeking of political status and honor, direct or indirect cooperation, the developing of personal relationship are mutually penetrated and embedded. The Association gradually become an intermediary service organization. This leads to the fact that the lateral autonomy of local government is inevitably impaired for the strong position of self-employed and private business owners to a certain degree. Commonality and contradiction of interests are intertwined so that the local government is not able to maintain an impartial stance in the interest conflict in the community. The Association and local governments form a kind of "interdependent but mutually vigilant" relationship to keep a relative balance of power. The process of construction and operation of Association’s authority in Village H reveals how it is that natural economy in the traditional rural communities and its accompanying community power structure transits to a market economy and its matched community power structure. From the transient integration practice of Village H, it is clear that village-community-based economic privatization does not necessarily make the disintegration of the village, and there is a slim chance of improving the reality through restoring the traditional gentry-style authority structure.There are some special advantages for the development of the Association of Village H, but it cannot do without such general conditions for the development of social organizations as the development of market economy, the local government’s strategy, as well as historical and cultural traditions influence and the degree of self-organization. All these make the development of the Association of Village H a sample within a limited area. A study on the formation and operation of the Authority of such an organization is useful to promote the explanation of the development of rural non-governmental organizations, understand the status of rural governance and the existing problems so that it provides a reference for China’s current village integration.