Study On Township Government Functional Transformation

Township government, as the lowest-level organ of state power, is the administrator of the rural issues, and also the bridge between upper-level governments and the mass. It assumes an indispensable role for the task of a resolution of rural problems, a full realization of modernization, and a construction of harmonious socialist society. The well-functioned administration by the township government casts a positive influence on the economic and social development of the rural society, helps to build up a favorable image of government, and enhances government authority. Over30years of reform and opening has achieved outstanding improvements in our economy, but made no significant changes to the fact that rural area is much less developed than the urban regions.As with the evolution of domestic and overseas situations, and the continuous improvement of socialist market economy system, especially the deepening of reforms in rural social cause fields, the defects manifest themselves more and more with our township administration system, which makes it increasingly hard to meet the requirements of the new age. Furthermore, the township administration system has become a serious hinderer to the development of rural social causes, thus a functional transformation of township governments is inevitable. This study, starting from the Chinese township government evolution history, makes a full discussion of the problems and challenges confronting the township government reform at the current stage, offers a scientific judgment on the past and present situation of our township-level government construction, and thus provides a rational illustration of the structural conflicts and institutional impediment against the Chinese township organ of state power. With illustration of functional transformation of the township governments in Wujiang, the study, starting from the post-1949township institutional construction, makes an analysis into the causes slowing down the township government functional transformation drive, and leads to a conclusion that our grass-root government functional transformation is of a comprehensive reform, requiring a full-round transition in a multitude of fields, such as modification of administrative philosophy, reform of government management institution, and innovation of work thought.In the early post-1949age, when the new government just rose from the war-wrecked country, the CCP central commission, in light of the then developments of productive forces, introduced the Soviet Union institutional model of planned economy. Planned economy, also known as command economy, at the early stage of social transformation, effectively secured a full control over the national economy, successfully maintained the stability of the macro economy, and well facilitated the recovery and growth of the national economy. Meanwhile, planned economy is also an institution featuring high centralization. Though our economic institutional reform and market economy construction advance continuously, the government administrative institutional reform march forward slowly, and planned economy features manifest themselves now and then in the government administration practives, as a result of a prolonged influence of planned economy. In sum, the Chinese township governments are challenged by several major problems, such as over-staffed township government, pressure-featuring county-township relationship, and the structural conflicts with administration institution between township government and village authority. Meanwhile, these problems, when complicated with such problems as rural issues, urbanization, taxation reform and harmonious society construction, create new challenges but also opportunities for the township government functional transformation. Whereas, a humanity-oriented ruling philosophy shall be established to facilitate a continued service-oriented government functional transformation; the township government performance evaluation system be improved to shift from a current pressure-oriented evaluation to a humanistic one, thus for a new and smooth township-county government relationship; and the township government human resource management system be reformed to optimize the staffing and talent growth mechanism, thus for an improved administrative capability of the township governments.In general, the Chinese township government functional transformation now faces serious challenges. Only when we, reality-based and future-oriented, make a full-round furthering of township organizational reform, an effective transform of township government functions, and an improvement of township government capability to service for the economy and society, can we sustain the harmony and stability in the rural areas, and achieve the goal for urbanization and modernization drives.