Research On The Impact Of Digital Technology Embedding On The Implementation Of Village-Level River Chief Policies

The comprehensive implementation of the river chief system is an important policy innovation to solve the complex water problems in contemporary China,and has a very farreaching significance for China’s water governance.However,the vitality of the river chief system depends not only on its advanced policy ideas,but also on whether it can be effectively implemented at the local level,especially at the grass-roots level.For the grass-roots township governments at the end of the national regime system,the governance tasks assigned by the superiors largely depend on the cooperation and implementation of the leaders of the village and even the village "two committees".The village-level river chief,who is mainly responsible for the "two committees" of the village,plays the dual role of the government authority "agent" and the village autonomy "head",and has the special hybrid property of "administrative river chief + folk river chief",whose policy implementation is directly related to the "last kilometer" effect of water control and the long-term effect of the river chief system.However,at the same time,the village head is also faced with difficulties such as lack of implementation resources,vague policy objectives,imbalance of power and responsibility,and role pressure.Driven by avoiding responsibility,it is possible to adopt the strategy of "having policies above and countermeasures below" to implement policies,resulting in the failure of the effectiveness of policy implementation to match the ideal state of policy implementation,resulting in "policy idling" phenomena such as policy implementation distortion,deviation and blocking.How to effectively improve the policy implementation ability of village river chiefs and maximize the elimination of the phenomenon of "policy idling" is very important to promote the transformation of the system of river chiefs from "famous" to "practical".In the principalagent relationship of the public sector,the information element is the basis and basis for the principal to make decisions,and is also an important medium to guide and coordinate the agent’s policy compliance.The development of digital technology has reshaped the new mechanism of social information interaction,enriched and changed the way people acquire information,communicate,interact and organize activities,and fully embedded digital technology into the important work highly concerned by the Party and government leaders,which has greatly overcome the bureaucratic deniability and inertia of division.The problem of high supervision cost and inadequate supervision caused by information asymmetry between superiors and subordinates has been resolved.Then,how does the embedding of digital technology in the rural river and lake governance scenario affect the policy implementation of village river chiefs? What is the mechanism and path through which this influence is transmitted? What are the influence boundaries and challenges faced in the transmission process? How to set the path of diversification and integration to expand the boundaries of influence and cope with challenges? Answering these questions well has important theoretical and practical significance for clarifying the important role of technical force in the implementation of river chief system and realizing the transformation of river chief system from "famous" to "realistic".Starting from digital governance theory,policy implementation theory,street bureaucrat theory and other theories,and on the basis of constructing an analytical framework for the influence of digital technology on the policy implementation ability of village-level river chiefs,this study uses the village-level survey data of the research group in Jiangsu,Hubei,Anhui,Shaanxi and Ningxia provinces.A variety of identification strategies,including ordinary least square method(OLS),quantile regression,stepwise regression,Bootstrap method with uncorrected deviation,ordered Logistic model and propensity score matching,were used to explore the effect of digital technology embedding on the policy implementation of village river chiefs.This paper reveals the transmission mechanism and function boundary of digital technology embedment affecting the policy implementation power of village river chiefs,and puts forward targeted policy suggestions to enhance the policy implementation power of village river chiefs.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)The diffusion effect of the river chief system in time and space is constantly emerging.The diffusion curve of river chief system among provinces(regions and cities)is approximately S-shaped,and its time history can be roughly divided into the initial promotion stage of policy(2007-2010),the emergence stage of policy diffusion(2011-2016),and the comprehensive implementation stage of policy(2017-present).As the river chief system is "absorbed and radiated" by the central government,"advocated and responded" by the higher government,and "learned and followed up" by the governments of other regions,its diffusion effect in the space field continues to emerge,and there is an obvious hierarchy effect.The hierarchy effect of precedent-follow,the proximity effect of regional diffusion,and the axial effect of spatial diffusion are significant.(2)The embedding of digital technology and the implementation level of village-level river chiefs’ policies show obvious heterogeneity among different regions.From a local level,this paper reveals the embedded characteristics of digital technology in the sample villages and the changing characteristics of the village-level river chief’s policy implementation power.The study found that:the embedding level of digital technology shows obvious heterogeneity in different regions,with the order of Jiangsu>Hubei>Anhui>Shaanxi>Ningxia.The implementation level of village-level river chief policies shows obvious heterogeneity in different regions,with the order of Jiangsu>Anhui>Hubei>Ningxia>Shaanxi.From the perspective of the implementation of the village-level river chief policy,the order is Jiangsu>Anhui>Ningxia>Shaanxi>Hubei.From the perspective of the implementation effectiveness,the order is Jiangsu>Anhui>Hubei>Ningxia>Shaanxi.(3)The direct effect of digital technology embedding on the implementation of villagelevel river chief policies.First of all,digital technology embedding has a significant positive impact on the policy implementation ability of village river chiefs,and this conclusion is still significantly valid after endogenous test,robustness test and placebo test.Secondly,the impact of digital technology embedding on the implementation of village-level river chiefs’ policies is heterogeneous according to the differences of different regions in the east,the middle and the west,the different time of establishment of village-level river chiefs,the different population size of the village,whether it is a pilot area for water system connectivity and water beauty rural construction,whether there are first secretaries and university village officials stationed in the village,the collective economic income of different villages,and whether there are public welfare folk river chiefs.Thirdly,the impact of digital technology embedding on the implementation effectiveness of village-level river chiefs’ policies shows an inverted Ushaped curve.In other words,appropriate digital technology embedding has a positive impact on the implementation effectiveness of village-level river chiefs’ policies.Once the digital technology embedding exceeds a certain threshold,the negative effect of digital technology embedding on the implementation effectiveness of village-level river chiefs’ policies gradually appears and exceeds the positive effect,leading to the negative impact of digital technology embedding on the implementation effectiveness of village-level river chiefs’ policies.Finally,based on the sample data,this paper calculates that the threshold point of the effectiveness of digital technology embedding on the implementation of village-level river chief policies is1.1368.(4)The indirect effect of digital technology embedding on the implementation of villagelevel river chief policies.First of all,by analyzing the intermediary effect of public service motivation between digital technology embedding and village-level river chiefs’ policy implementation,as well as the regulatory effect of institutional incentives,the study found that:(1)Public service motivation plays an active intermediary role between digital technology embedding and the effectiveness and resultant force of village-level river chief policy execution.(2)Formal institutional incentives only play a significant positive moderating role between digital technology embedments and village river chiefs’ policy implementation capacity and implementation effectiveness,while informal institutional incentives play a significant positive moderating role between digital technology embedments and village river chiefs’ policy implementation capacity,implementation effectiveness and implementation synergy.Secondly,by analyzing the intermediary effect of cooperation level between digital technology embedding and the implementation of village-level river chiefs’ policies,as well as the regulatory effect of internal trust,the study found that:(1)The horizontal cooperation level among village river chiefs plays a positive intermediary role between digital technology embedding,the effectiveness and resultant force of policy implementation of village river chiefs.(2)Internal trust plays a positive moderating role between digital technology embedment and village-level river chiefs’ policy implementation capacity and implementation effectiveness.Relational trust only plays a positive moderating role between digital technology embedment and the internal cooperation level of river chief organizational system,while system trust plays a positive moderating role between digital technology embedment and the internal cooperation level of river chief organizational system.Finally,by analyzing the intermediary effect of public participation between digital technology embedding and the implementation of village-level river chiefs’ policies,as well as the regulatory effect of village institutional capacity,the study found that:(1)Digital technology embedding can positively affect the implementation of village-level river chiefs’ policies through public participation in decision-making,supervision and management,that is,public participation plays a positive intermediary role between digital technology embedding and village-level river chiefs’ policy implementation.(2)Village institutional capacity positively moderates the impact of digital technology embedding on public participation.Based on the above research conclusions,this paper puts forward the following policy recommendations:(1)refine the list of rights and responsibilities of village river chiefs,and enhance their awareness and ability to perform their duties;(2)Promote the construction of "intelligent water control" platform and promote the intelligent implementation of villagelevel river chief policies;(3)mprove the application of digital technology in the grass-roots river chief system and beware of digital formalism;(4)Stimulate the public service motivation of village leaders and optimize the formal and informal incentive mechanism;(5)Strengthen the coordination and linkage between village leaders and improve the internal trust level of village leaders;(6)Build a long-term public participation mechanism and strengthen the institutional capacity building of the village.