"Province Directly Governing County System" Reform In China

In contemporary China, there are four local administrative levels:province, city, county and township. The multilevel system often results in man problems such as overstaffing, large administrative cost and low efficiency, which further cast negative effects on county economic development.In China, county economy contributes a lot to economic development and social stability. In order to development county economy, several measures should be taken, and the important one is to reduce administrative levels and replace the current "City Governing County" system with "Province Governing County" system.Theorists abroad have put forward a series of theories dealing with public administration and its reform. These theories, along with their practices, provide Chinese counterparts examples and lessons to learn from."Province Governing County" System reform attracts both researchers and government officials. They discuss widely about the faults of the previous "City Governing County" System, and the-possibilities of the new system. Government officials, as decision-makers, work out related policies. Till now 22 provinces (or provincial level) have tried "Province Governing County Fiscally", and they come out respective policies on fiscal management based on current laws and basic policies as well as their own situations. Their experiences become models of the reform."Province Governing County" System most runs in East and Central China, where economy as well as transportation and communication are well developed, and people are highly educated. West China is most mountainous areas, causing difficulties to transportation and communication. There is large ethnic minority area, where economic development there is very slow. Although "Province Governing County" System has been taken by provinces in East and Central China for a long time, in most Western provinces, multi-level administration system still dominate.Guizhou Province is located in Western China. Most of its land is mountainous, and there is large ethnic minority population. To adopt "Province Governing County" System in Guizhou Province, those factors mentioned above should be well considered in reform formulation. Based on the experiences of other provinces, decision makers in Guizhou should carefully define administrative and fiscal authorities between province and county, give more autonomy to counties, and divide power between city and county. Cities in Guizhou made great contributions to economic development, and their roles should be redefined after the reform.Ethnic minorities compose large part of the population, and autonomous prefecture plays important role in strengthening national unity and realizing mutual prosperity. The autonomous prefecture system should be continued and transferred to the new system when conditions are mature.The prefecture level city plays a positive role in the economic development, and their relations with counties should be restructured after the reform. Regional Administrative Office worked a lot in economic development, but as social economy, especially county economy is developing fast, it becomes an obstacle to development. So after the reform, it should be streamed and its efficiency should be improved."Province Governing County" reform is of importance in both theoretical and practical aspects. In the one hand, it can enrich China's theoretical resources on province governing county; on the other hand, it can provide experiences for other Western provinces to take this new administrative system.