Research On The Assistance Mechanism Of Cadres Stationed In Villages In Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Village-based assistance is a long-term rural working method of the Communist Party of China.It has played an important role in implementing the party's guidelines and policies through the historical period from the agrarian revolution to the comprehensive construction of a well-off society and targeted poverty alleviation.However,in the field of targeted poverty alleviation,the actual effectiveness of villagebased assistance shows significant differences,which forms a confusing contrast with the highly consistent structural and institutional arrangements.Why is that? How exactly does village-based assistance work? Existing studies have given corresponding explanations from the perspectives of sports governance,institutional analysis,cadre characteristics and embeddedness.However the first three perspectives are difficult to reconcile the “dualism” divide between individual and collective,micro and macro,structure and action,rational and irrational.The embeddedness perspective has realized this dilemma,but failed to fill the gap.In the process of practice,we can find that the village-based assistance is flooded by various specific events,showing the characteristics of multi-line parallelism,repeated interweaving,and fragmentation,which is not a clear,single-line advancement process.However,this article also notices that the relationships between the involved actors centered on village-based cadres evolve consistently and orderly under the influence of the events.Therefore,the meso perspective of social network is a suitable research tool for analyzing the mechanism of village-based assistance.Based on a review of social network theory,this article abstracts the analysis framework of "network features,network functions,network processes".According to this framework,the above core concern can be divides into three specific questions :(1)What are the characteristics of the social network of village-based cadres?(2)How does the social network of village-based cadres affect the effectiveness of village-based assistance?(3)How does the social network of village-based cadres and village-based assistance construct each other ?In terms of network characteristics,the social network of village-based cadres can be divided into four types: stock network outside the village,incremental network outside the village,stock network inside the village,incremental network inside the village due to their space-time characteristics.The stock network outside the village is the result of the social activities of the cadres before entering the village,and also the basis and important reliance for the cadres to work and expand the incremental social network after entering the village.Incremental network outside the village is composed of the person who the cadres met and helped after the work started.Two types of outside village networks provide instrumental support for cadres.The incremental network inside the village is composed of villagers and village cadres.As the receivers of resources,they mainly provide emotional support for cadres.The stock networks inside the village are just theoretical derivatives.In terms of network functions,data analysis shows that the social network of village-based cadres does have a significant impact on the effectiveness of village-based assistance,and plays an intermediary role between the institutional environment,individual characters and village-based assistance.However,these seemingly unified concepts actually have different dimensions and corresponding mechanisms in causal model.They constitute a complex model of causal structure.It cannot be concluded only by the binary or ternary relationship among them,but should be carried out holistic analysis.In terms of the network process,villagebased assistance can be divided into three stages: cadre selection and mobilization of network outside village,adaptation and construction of network inside the village,multiple collaboration and integration of each network.The above-mentioned social networks and related factors play their respective roles when facing specific challenges at different stages,and ultimately promote network members centered on village-based cadres to participate in village-based assistance and complete assistance tasks.Taking the conclusions of these three branch questions as an annotation,the mechanism of the village-based assistance from the perspective of social networks can be theoretically summarized as "network transplantation".Village-based assistance creates more diverse social network nodes through village-based cadres,and transplants the social network of village-based cadres into remote and scattered poor villages,driving by the political power and policy systems,relying on the public service spirit,profit motive,and path-dependent inertia of network members,connecting through responsibilities,interests,contracts,and friendship.Through the expansion and reconstruction of social networks,Village-based assistance weaves a new network for poverty alleviation between urban and rural areas,the country and society,the rich and poor,which promotes exchanges,mutual trust,collaboration among various actors and the optimal allocation of resources and factors,bridges the gaps in the process of social development,and ultimately achieves targeted poverty alleviation.