Leadership,Institutional Combination And Public Goods Supply In Rural Communities

The supply of public goods is the legitimacy basis for the existence of the state and the government,and it is also the goal of the contract between the state and its citizens.The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of my country pointed out that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era,and the main contradiction in our society has been transformed into the contradiction between the people’s growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and insufficient development,especially in the process of urban-rural integration construction,the urban and rural public services are unbalanced and inadequate.As a transitional community form of"non-urban and non-village",rural communities governance model is more urbanized than rural communities,and less mature than urban communities.Through the comparison of the supply of public goods in three rural communities,the internal logic of the difference in the supply of public goods is analyzed,in order to explore an effective path to achieve equalization of urban and rural public services.The existing public goods supply theories are mainly divided into three categories:one is the state function theory,that is,the state and the government are the suppliers of public goods,and the state naturally has the responsibility to provide public goods for its citizens.The second is the theory of public choice,that is,citizens can choose or supply public goods independently through voting,collective action,etc.,and autonomous supply can only be achieved if certain conditions are met.The third is the community theory,that is,the positive impact of rural community,clan community,market community and cultural community on the supply of public goods.In addition,the research perspective of public goods supply focuses on the interpretation of institutions on the supply of public goods,including the impact of formal institutions on the supply of public goods,such as political system,political structure,clientele,democratic accountability,supply system,etc.It also includes the impact of informal institutions on the supply of public goods,such as solidarity organizations,social capital,network relationships,and social contracts,etc.On the one hand,existing research theories,especially the theory of public choice,regard the supply of public goods as "the behavior of the majority of people",ignoring the core role of leadership in community governance;On the other hand,the research perspective of institutions and public goods supply is a one-dimensional logic,which fails to involve the relevant research on the interactive combination of formal institutions and informal institutions on the supply of public goods.Based on this,this paper proposes a "leadership-institution combination" analytical framework to explain the inherent differences in the supply of public goods.Rural communities are formed by the merger of multiple villages.They have neither community property rights nor self-governing organizations.They are essentially public service units but do not have the ability to provide services,especially the supply of public goods.The case shows that public goods in rural communities has two characteristics:homogeneity and heterogeneity.Homogeneous public goods include public goods required for national construction and basic public goods that meet the basic needs of the community.These public goods are not determined by community leadership.Heterogeneous public goods mainly depend on community leadership,such as community welfare,public sanitation,and cultural public goods.Community leadership includes two dimensions:organizational factors and personal factors.Organizational factors refer to leaders’political status and resources,and personal factors refer to leaders’ personal abilities and desires.The effect of leadership on formal institutions and informal institutions forms three types of combinations,namely institutional cooperation,institutional dependence and institutional coercion.Institutional cooperation is the cooperation of formal resources and informal resources under the superposition of organizational and personal factors of leadership;Institutional dependence is the dependence of formal institutions on informal institutions under the influence of individual factors of leadership;institutional coercion is the neglect of formal institutions over informal institutions under the influence of organizational factors of leadership.The conclusion shows that leadership is the core condition of institutional combination,and institutional combination determines the difference in the supply of public goods.Institutional cooperation can strengthen the supply of public goods,which is manifested in the multiple cooperation between formal and informal subjects,and the supply types are mostly capital-intensive and large-scale public goods;institutional dependence is limited to strengthen the supply of public goods,which is manifested in the independent supply of informal subjects,its supply types are mainly capital-scattered and small-scale public goods;institutional coercion is limited to strengthen the supply of public goods,which is manifested as bureaucratic supply of formal institutions,and its supply types are mainly capital-intensive and small-scale public goods.This paper focuses on refuting the simple linear relationship between formal institutions,informal institutions and public goods supply,emphasizing the influence of the interaction and combination of formal institutions and informal institutions on public goods supply,and citing leadership theory to explain institutional relationships and differences in the provision of public goods.