A Study On The Development Of Specialized Farmer Cooperatives With The Polycentric Governance

China’s farmer professional cooperatives are Mutual-Aid Economic Organizations which are established on the basis of rural household contract management. Producers of similar agricultural products or services providers of similar agricultural production and management voluntarily join the association and adopt democratic management. China tread developing specialized farmer cooperatives as an important initiative for the new era of building a new socialist countryside which suits to rural prosperity, income increase of peasants, internal needs of the market economy and serves as a new method to overcome all the disadvantages of decentralized management, as well as to resist the natural and market risks.In spite of their late beginning, and still being in its infancy, china’s cooperatives are rapidly growing. Especially since the implementation of ’Farmers Specialized Cooperatives Act’in2007. farmers professional cooperatives are established one after another across the country, especially in the economically developed regions. With the ever growing number of the farmer professional cooperatives, they have also covered more and more fields. Since the reform and opening up, China’s farmer professional cooperatives gradually experienced the course from human-driven step, spontaneous formation to self-development under the government guidance. In the course of this progress, many problems concerning their governance exposed. With the continuous improvement of external environment, the actual and urgent needs and requirements for the development of these cooperatives should be in-depth study of cooperative governance, improvement of governance structures and mechanisms and enhancement of cooperation in multi-level and multi-facet.Polycentric Governance is a main model in western developed countries and develops into core content in social management of China. It became a hot topic in the theoretical world, basing on the successful applied model in practices. This theory attracts more attention from the society after Elinor Ostrom(1933-2012), a representative of Polycentric Governance won The Noble Prize in economics in2009. This theory is multidisciplinary. It has a close connection with politics, economics, laws and sociology.This study analyzes the problems in the operation of farmers’professional cooperative development from the perspective of multi-center governance basing on the results of researches both abroad and at home and case study. And also this study aims to optimize the governance of farmer professional cooperatives under the guidance of polycentric governance theory. Through analytical reasoning, this paper finds the following problems of the farmer professional cooperatives, such as, inadequate internal systems and operating mechanisms, lacking of effective decision-making, monitoring and incentive systems, dummy organization structure and their standing rules, insufficient participation and ability of the cooperative members and the phenomenon of government "offside" and " absent". Meanwhile, on the basis of analysis of the current reality and with the polycentric governance theory, this paper is aiming to perfect the governance model of farmer professional cooperatives featured by government guidance, farmers oriented, multi-sides participated. diversified cooperation forms. voluntary grouping and democratic management. Therefore the cooperatives can better serve our people. Since it is a complex project and involves the interests of all parties, many efforts should be taken, like enhancing the dominant position of farmers, drawing on the functional role of the Government, mobilizing enthusiasm of the main participants and perfecting the corresponding supportive measures and institutional arrangements to provide the appropriate institutional guarantee for the realization of the polycentric governance.There are five chapters in this thesis. Chapter1is introduction. In which the background, aims, and significances of this study will be put forward. This chapter introduces the creative points and limitations. Chapter2presents the relevant terms and main definitions. In this chapter, the definition of social organizations, social capital, cooperative and farmer specialized cooperatives and management will be introduced. The content of multi-center governance will be presented, too. It includes relevant thought origin, basic content, and characteristics. Chapter3will introduce the development and governance model of must melon farmers’ professional cooperative in L town. Basing on the researches on the situation and development status of must melon farmers’professional cooperative in L town, the development status, governance model, characteristics, problems, and reasons in the operation of farmers’professional cooperative. Chapter4is about the general foundations and conditions of farmers’professional cooperative from the perspective of multi-center governance. By combining the case with the reality in China, the policy support of multi-center governance, market conditions, geographical advantage, citizen participation and other favorable conditions will be analyzed. Chapter5is the construction of farmers’ professional cooperative with Chinese characteristics. First, the theory of multi-center governance under China’s governance theory and model will be briefly introduced. Basing on the problems in multi-center governance of farmers’ professional cooperative with Chinese characteristics, the strategies will be proposed to construct the model of multi-center governance of farmers’professional cooperative.