The Enlightenment Of The Minimalist Governance Tradition To Balance The Relationship Of Modern "Government-administered Township And Villager Autonomy"

In the process of rural governance modernization,the relationship between state power and rural endogenous power cannot be a single strong suppression or substitution,but needs to maintain some tension,and achieve dynamic balance in mutual interaction and cooperation.As a modern rural governance mechanism in China,the “government-administered township and villager autonomy” has always been presenting the structural imbalance of strong administration and weak autonomy in practice.Especially in recent years,the subjectivity of “villager autonomy” is almost obscured by the actual positioning of servicing “government-administered township”,which is undoubtedly contrary to the spirit and ideal form of“government-administered township and villager autonomy” contained in the design of“The government and the society govern together” at the beginning.Although this unbalanced mode has achieved remarkable results in the rapid promotion of rural modernization,it is a deviation from the direction of modern rural governance in which the state and society coexist and strengthen together.It hides some governance dangers of weak independent growth and insufficient internal motivation in rural areas,and induces defects in governance,for example,the village cadres to be tired of “being responsible to the top”,administrative dependency at the village level is strengthened,village formalism prevails,national resources sent to the countryside are integrated.Therefore,how to balance the relationship between “government-administered township” and “villager autonomy”,get rid of the dependence of“administration-centered” path,fully stimulate the governance potential of “villager autonomy”,and realize the two-way efficient interaction between rural administrative power and autonomy has become an urgent problem to be considered and solved in the process of promoting the modernization of rural governance.How to balance “official rule” and “civil rule” is a difficult problem of rural governance to be paid attention to in any era.In traditional Chinese villages,there are two kinds of order and power: “official rule” centered on dynastic regime and “civil rule” centered on rural elites.While accepting the intervention or control of the dynastic regime,the rural society maintained its relative independence and autonomy,so that the dynastic control and the endogenous power of the village kept relative balance in the interaction,and formed a minimalist governance model with unique Chinese characteristics,which embodies the corresponding “tradition of minimalist governance”.As for how to balance the relationship between modern “government-administered township” and “villager autonomy”,the existing discussion and thinking mainly follow western thinking to solve Chinese problems,or focus on a single perspective of modernization,lack of mining of traditional Chinese governance resources,and to some extent,there are shortcomings of incompatibility and inefficiency.Based on this,the wisdom and experience drawn from the minimalist governance tradition can provide a new analytical perspective for this article to consider the balance of“government-administered township and villager autonomy”.By focusing on the question of how to balance the “official rule” and “civil rule”,which is a common problem between ancient and modern rural societies,we can find that the modern system of “government-administered township and villager autonomy” is to some extent a genetic continuation of the ancient tradition of minimalist governance tradition,which provides historical rationality and practical basis for this article to seek the balanced wisdom of “government-administered township and villager autonomy” from the historical tradition.The minimalist governance tradition plays a balancing,buffering,and complementary function to the operation of “government-administered township and villager autonomy”,rather than a substitute role,which is the strategic positioning of this paper.In accordance with the logical organization of “analyze realistic problems—argumentative value basis—backtrack minimalist governance tradition—refine modern value”,this paper starts with the realistic problem of the imbalance of contemporary“government-administered township and villager autonomy”.Based on the theoretical perspective of state-society interaction and rural elite governance,the study mainly adopts the historical research method,and based on the three-dimensional analysis framework of “interactive subject—interactive modality—interactive situation”,this study deeply explains the interactive logic of “xiangli control system” representing“official rule” and “village autonomy system” representing “civil rule” under the Chinese traditional model of minimalist governance,and extracts the excellent genes of the minimalist governance tradition,in order to provide some inspiration for balancing the modern “government-administered township and villager autonomy”from the ideological level.Looking back at the tradition,we can find that “minimalist governance” largely reveals the political form and rich connotation of the balance between administrative power and endogenous power in traditional Chinese villages.In the dimension of“interactive subject”,“xiangli control system” representing “official rule” and “village autonomy system” representing “village autonomy system” were the two main subjects of traditional Chinese minimalist governance,and they were not clearly defined,but were organically linked under the mediation of “quasi-officials”.In the dimension of“interaction modality”,there were changes in the relationship between “xiangli control system” and “village autonomy system”,such as opposition and game,utilization and cooperation,coupling and assistance,etc.Although both of them were opposing and conflicting in some interests and goals in the extraordinary governance situation,they showed mutual support and consistency in the actual and normal rural social life,and even take the initiative to adjust their own structure and mode of operation,to achieve mutual order fit.The minimalist governance model has a certain self-adjustment and self-restoration mechanism,which could make the two main bodies of “official rule-civil rule” finally realize a state of rural governance from opposition to cooperative governance,and could also continue the gene and return to a stable state in the change of dynastic regime.In the dimension of “interactive situation”,the kinship cohesion,low supply and vulnerability of small-scale peasant economy,the limited and restrictive penetration of bureaucracy into the grassroots society,the upward and downward flow of elite talents under the open regime system,and the integration of values between dynastic state and rural society by Confucian ideology,together constitute the interactive situation of xiangli control system and village autonomy system under the minimalist governance model in traditional Chinese rural society.Economy,politics and culture not only operated independently,but also coordinated and adapted to each other,so as to maintain the relative stability of the whole situation.It can be said that the effective governance and long-term maintenance of traditional Chinese rural society largely rely on this minimalist governance model which includes the dual factors of state power and village autonomy.Historical research is a tool,learning from the past and responding to the current problem are the purpose.In the current era,the governance rationality and humanistic spirit contained in the minimalist governance tradition can still serve as a supplementary concept and auxiliary tool to provide some earthly value inspiration for balancing the relationship of “government-administered township” and “villager autonomy”.Based on the historical experience of the reasonable collocation of primary and secondary rules under the cooperation of “rites” and “laws”,the “new village contract” should be constructed in the new era to strengthen the institutional carrier of the operation of “villager autonomy”,so that this informal system of rules can play a leading role in maintaining the village order.Supplemented by the macro integration,direction guidance and principle norms of national construction rules,the double constraint rules of “internal,primary and external,auxiliary” should be formed.Based on the historical experience of using the intermediary role of “quasi-officials” to mediate flexibly,the resources of “new rural sages” in the new era should be activated to foster a modern elite class that organically connects the state power and rural society,so as to play the role of “middle layer” forces in adjusting the relationship between“government-administered township” and “villager autonomy”,and enhance the elastic space and flexibility in the field of connecting the government and the people.Based on the historical experience of realizing the isomorphism of family-country and spiritual integration with Confucian ideology,an ideology of family-state integration in the new era with the Communist Party of China as the core should be built,and create the emotional connection and ethical bond between the state and villagers,and enhance the value isomorphism and spiritual integration between the state power and rural society,which play a spiritual bonding role in balancing the relationship between“government-administered township” and “villager autonomy”.Based on the historical experience of moderate intervention under “controlled passive governance”,integrate the concept of “passive governance” into the infiltration process of state grassroots power,and form the will orientation and action logic of state power “to do something and not to do anything”,and fully respect the development law of rural society for matters that rural society can solve on its own,without excessive intervention of administrative power.Based on the historical experience of pairing formal names with informal realities,build the official name of state power in the autonomous villages,and on this basis,allow the autonomous villages to form the informal reality of autonomous and flexible management and service in actual operation,and realize the timely conversion between the two under normal and abnormal situations to achieve the organic unity of strengthening the administrative unity and maintaining the flexibility of village governance.Guided by the current imbalance of “government-administered township and villager autonomy” and focusing on the perspective of exploration of historical experience,this paper aims to achieve accurate and effective connection between the minimalist governance tradition and contemporary practical problems,which is conducive to making up for the deficiency of the separation of “traditional-modern” in existing studies,and helping to build a rural governance system with Chinese local characteristics.