Municipal County Reform

Under the policy background of developing the county-territory economy vigorously and solving ' three rural' issues, the responsibility which the county-level governments undertake is significant. In order to enhance enthusiasm and initiative of its economic development, and to improve administrative efficiency, the provincial government should decentralize its financial, economic, social and administrative authority at the county-level administrative units. But 'city governing county' under the economy-planned system cannot be able to meet the needs of economical and social development. Therefore, in recent years, many parts all over the country have launched the activity of 'expanding county's right to make it formidable', in order to overcome the drawbacks of the system 'city governing county',to mobilize and enhance the enthusiasm of cities and counties, to develop and expand the county-level economy, to solve outstanding problems in the social development.The reform for 'expanding county's right to make it formidable' means in the situation without involving in the temporary adjustment of administrative division, the provincial government will endow some counties directly with some of the economic and social management rights in the provincial or the city-level departments. In order to narrow rights of municipal governments to manage Counties, reduce management layers and improve administrative efficiency, to make counties more autonomous, flexible and creative, so that it can promote the economic and social development in the counties, the core of the reform for 'expanding county's right to make it formidable' is by the way of transition from 'province governing county' under the financial system to 'province governing county' under the executive-led system, and is a realistic option for gradual transition in a real sense. Its core purpose is to enrich the people of the whole province and stay in favor of the county. The reform for 'expanding county's right to make it formidable', which stems from the needs of economic and social development and emerges from practice of the reform, is prevail at present, it is attempting in more than 20 provinces across the country, it has become an exploring trend of the optimal size in local government areas. However, this attempt to reform has exposed a number of questions in practice and hindered the further development of the reform.This paper will conduct a system research for more than 20 provinces in the ongoing reform for 'expanding county's right to make it formidable'. Based on the background: the driving forces of reform for 'empowering county-level government': the plight of the system 'city governing county' (the functions of county-level government are incomplete, lead to increased layers of governments, seriously restricted the economic development of the county, etc.)the paper shows the necessity of the reform for expanding county's right to make it formidable, and analyzes the overall situation in our country about the reform for 'expanding county's right to make it formidable' combination with the theories, in accordance with the geographical order, listed four representative provinces from east to west as a further analysis of the reform, distinguishes the similarities and differences between 'making county formidable to expand its right' and 'expanding county's right to make it formidable', summed up the significance of this reform, characteristics, developing trends, reform for 'expanding county's right to make it formidable' is a new reform attempts, and there is no quite mature theory and practice that we can learn from, so there will inevitably be a series of problems during the reform, in order to make the progress of reform smooth, the paper focused on the analysis of appearing issues in the practice of reform, and try to come up with some countermeasures to promote the reform.