A Pilot Study On Anhui "Province Governing County" System Reform

The market economic system of China has been continuously improved in the past thirty years since the start of reform and opening up to outside world. The gross domestic production (GDP) has become the second in the world. However, China is still and will be in the primary stage of socialism for a long time. The realization of the comprehensive well-off society by2020is the phased goal of the whole country. The major obstacles to realize the goal are the relatively slow development of the county-level economy and the unbalance in urban and rural areas. To use the scientific concept of development as the guidance and insist on urban-rural integration are the timely and sensible solutions. By January19,2014, the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the state council have declared 《Certain proposals about comprehensively deepening rural reforms to accelerate agricultural modernization)), and the central government has released eleven No.1documents regarding the "three agriculture" problem in the new century. The county-level economic development is the focus of the "three agriculture" problem, which has attracted more and more unprecedented attention. As a new perspective to resolve the "three agricultures" problem, the institutional reform of "province governing county" has come into the sight of the decision-making leadership and academic circles.In this thesis we concentrate the research on the pilot institutional reform of "province-governing county". At the beginning we review the exploring history that the provincial fiscal institutional reform actively expanded to the "power extending county":In2004the government of Anhui province issued <The notice about implementing fiscal institutional reform of "province governing county"》(Anhui government document, no.8,2004) to advance the fiscal institutional reform of "province governing county"; In2006the provincial government issued 《The notice about launching the pilot expansion project of economic and social management authority in twelve counties (cities) including NingGuo》(Anhui government document, no.126,2006) to lunch the pilot expansion; In2009, based on the experience obtained from the pilot expansion of county economy in recent years, it was determined that the authority expansion of county-level economic and social management would be carried out extensively in sixty one counties (cities) in the whole province, initiating the authority expansion reform. Problems were analyzed and lessons were learnt in the history review. In March2011the provincial government released (the proposal about advancing the pilot institutional reform of the "province governing county"》(Anhui government document, no.10,2011), accelerating the "province governing county" institutional reform and specifying two counties as the pilot area. Given such a background, this thesis selects a "province governing county", x county, as the objective; we conduct field research, through the ways of interview, empirical case, and quantitative analysis, to demonstrate the effects and to dissect the problems, specifically discussing the institutional barriers that hinder the advancement of "province governing county" reform, including:insufficient supporting reforms, problems in cadre personnel management and institutional organization, etc; meanwhile we broadly survey the domestic "province governing county" reforms, and by combining their successful experience with the actual circumstance of Anhui province, we propose some policy suggestions to improve the "province governing county" institutional reform:first, create a favorable atmosphere highlighting the importance of reform; second, clarify the relationships among province, city, and county; third, resolve problems in cadre personnel management and institutional organization; fourth, strengthen the construction of legal system and the functions of government reengineering; fifth, strengthen the supervision of powers. The research of this thesis aims at providing theoretical and practical evidence and reference for the deepening administration institutional reform and the buildup of service-oriented government in the province.