Research On The Role And Behavior Of Local Government In Shunde Urbanization

The local government has played a significant role in the process of China's urbanization.Studying the specific roles and behavioral logic of the local government in urbanization is conducive to explaining the process mechanism of China's urbanization.Under the multi-level administrative organization structure and the administrative contract system of our government,the administrative hierarchy has a great impact on the role and behavior of the local government.At present,the academic research on local government from the perspective of administrative hierarchy pays less attention to the relevance of the hierarchical attribute of local government and its role in urbanization,while a large number of studies on urbanization have a certain degree of vague understanding of the hierarchical role of local government.Therefore,the paper chooses to re-examine the local government as the main actor of urbanization from the perspective of hierarchical relationship,and conducts a study on the specific role and behavior of the local government in Guangdong Shunde's urbanization,which is of of great sample significance.Based on the hierarchical relationship between the three major actors of government,market and society in the process of urbanization,the paper summarizes the vague role of the local government,which often shows the characteristics of “Leaders Making Policy,Subordinates Making Another” between the top central government and the bottom market and social subjects,as the role of the "intermediate".Besides,the paper also puts forward the intermediate's behavior characteristics of “floating up and down”'in urbanization.Therefore,the paper establishes the "intermediate" theoretical model of the local government.First of all,the local government acts as the "intermediate" between the upper and lower subjects,and shows the behavior characteristics of "floating up and down,complex and flexible",whether it is a local administrative organization independent of the market or society,or based on the hierarchical relationship within the national administrative system.Secondly,due to the role differentiation of different levels of government within the overall "intermediate" of local government,the local government can be further divided into upper-level local government(provincial),middle-level local government(prefecture and county)and lower-level local government(township).Among them,the middle-level local government of the prefecture and the county has the most typical role and behavior characteristics of the “intermediate”,and it is in the “dominant intermediate” state.And the upper-level local governments of the province and the lower-level of the township are in the “non-dominant intermediate” state,because they always show significantly upwards or downwards.In the process of urbanization,the “intermediate” behavior of local government is constrained by the the upper-level institutional framework,the pursuit of the intermediate self-interest,and the lower-level localism infiltration,as well as external environmental factors including marketization,globalization,and informationization.The institutional factor of upper-level is a decisive factor,it influences the middle and lower level factors,and defines the behavior boundary of local government by defining the autonomous authority of local governments.The profit-seeking factor of middle-level is the dominant factor,and its interest orientation and value judgment determine the direction of behavior.The localism infiltration factor of lower-level is a regulatory factor,it profoundly affects the behavior style and path of local government.The external environmental factor,as a background situation or macro-development trend,plays a slow,gradual and far-reaching role.By acting on the upper,middle and lower level factors respectively,the external environmental factor has a more complex impact on the “intermediate” behavior.It is the mutual relationship and interaction of these factors that have contributed to the behavior characteristics of "floating up and down,complex and flexible" of local government as the "intermediate" in China.Based on the different external environmental characteristics and the different actions of the upper,middle and lower level factors correspondingly,there are four basic modes in the behavior relationship among different level subjects in urbanization: the integration of the three,the separation of the three,the intermediate shifting upwards,and the intermediate shifting downwards.In China's urbanization,the local government as a “intermediate”,has experienced a transition from indirect to direct mode in promoting urbanization,with three main behavior methods of resource management,administrative division adjustment and making growth planning.As a typical representative of the urbanization of county-level administrative units in the Pearl River Delta region of China,the urbanization process in Shunde,Guangdong Province,has its special reference value.The paper takes Guangdong Shunde as an example,to study and analyze the development process of Shunde's urbanization and the role and behavior of local government of each level in urbanization since the reform and opening up.On the basis of summing up the characteristics of each stage of Shunde's urbanization,the paper uses the theoretical framework of the "intermediate" of local government to explain and analyze the behavior of Shunde's local government in promoting urbanization,and to summarize the behavior patterns and its evolutionary characteristics as the "intermediate",by analyzing the influencing factors of behavior and the relationship between each level government.The conclusions are as follows: Shunde's urbanization has gone through four stages.Stage I(1978-1992)is the start of rural in-situ urbanization dominated by township enterprises.Stage II(1992-2002)is the rapid development of urbanization under the reform of market-oriented system.Stage III(2002-2009)is the initial coordinated development of urbanization from economic dominance to social consideration.Stage IV(since 2009)is the connotation development of urbanization under the comprehensive deepening of reform.In terms of spatial evolution,the first two stages are dominated by rural areas,while the latter two are dominated by urban areas.In terms of population,it has undergone a process of shifting from a non-agricultural transformation of the local labor force to a growing population of migrants.In the aspect of economy and society,the transition from collective enterprises to local private enterprises has led to the continuous development of Shunde's industry and economy,and the construction of social public utilities has gradually improved.In terms of spatial form: In Stage I,the rural primary industrialization promoted a transformation of non-agricultural land use based on the expansion of production space,and showed a dotted and decentralized overall pattern in spatial form.At the same time,the county town system structure also showded the relative balance of differential development of small towns,whth an unprominent county center.In Stage II,the construction land of villages and towns spread further and spread,showing the overall pattern of line spread with urban-rural mixed.Meanwhile,the expansion of village industrial land caused a reversal of village-town relations by mighty village and weak town.In Stage III,the construction of intensive industrial parks and the urban function of Foshan,promoted the further spread of urban construction land into patches in Shunde,showing an overall pattern of patches-axis and centralized nuclei in space.And the development of small towns and the relationship between them have also begun to change from the past self-governing to preliminary joint and cooperation.In Stage IV,the development and use of land resources in Shunde has reached the limit of ecological carrying capacity,and the urban construction has turned to the repair of the area of the land for reuse.Meanwhile,the regional integration of the regional planning layout promoted a group-network pattern in urban and rural space.Besides,each town tends to achieve more regional cooperation,with their own advantages.In this process,the local government's promotion of Shunde's urbanization has generally undergone a process of “indirect promotion-indirect promotion and direct promotion-direct promotion”.In terms of specific behavior measures,firstly,based on the political intentions of different superior subjects in the various urbanization stages,Shunde District has been continuously adjusted adaptively.Secondly,the method of resource management by Shunde government has been continuously upgraded and experienced the evolution of “business management-land and brand management-industrial revival”.Finally,the planning has experienced the early focus on the cultivation and strengthening of the urban center,to the regional integration in the later period.Generally speaking,the power of the bottom-up has always been strong in Shunde's urbanization,while the top-down power has gradually increased along with the development process.Local governments at all levels have experienced a relationship from dissociation to integration,and it also shows a roughly corresponding relationship in urban space.Corresponding to the four urbanization stages of Shunde,the behavior mode of Shunde government as the “intermediate” has experienced a process of "intermediate" shifting downwards,countervailing the up and the down,being restricted to the up and the down,and finally merging the up and the down four stages,which provides empirical evidence for theoretical model of the "intermediate" of local government.