From Administrative Village To Hamlet:the Research Of The Unit Of Effective Realization Of Villager Autonomy

The purpose of this paper is to comb different forms of villager autonomy of Baihedong in different periods and whereby to explore an effective governance unit of villager autonomy. By combing the 30-year history of Baihedong villager autonomy, the author finds that Baihedong villager autonomy has experienced 3stages, namely government-leading, villagers initiation and government promotion. And relatively, governance units of Baihedong have changed from administrative village to community and hamlet.Therefore, this paper selects 3 different periods. First, it is government-leading villager autonomy period. During this stage, villager autonomy is carried out by taking administrative village as a unit with daily routines handled by village cadres. Since Baihedong is a mountain village and villagers reside scattered, it is rather difficult for cadres to deal with villagers’disputes timely. Especially, after the reform of taxation expenses, in order to cut expenses, Baihedong has conducted merging villages to groups, which makes Baihedong have a larger village range, and so it’s too far away for cadres to manage daily routines timely. And thus, new problems emerge in village governance.Second, it is rural community autonomy period pushed by local experience. Affected by Tieluchong peasants’self-organized road repair affairs, Baihedong becomes the first to rescind village group and divide the village into 30 rural communities, opening community-based community public welfare construction climax under the leadership of capable rural persons. Community autonomy gradually stops at later stage of rural community construction because of weak economic strength, lacking collective economic income as well as shifting of government policy focuses.Third, it is government promoting hamlet autonomy period. Based on rural community, Baihedong has subdivided new hamlets and has elected "one leader, eight members" to guide villagers to initiate public welfare establishments and develop community economy. During this period, village construction aims to create "happy villages " and has established a relatively perfect system. And with government policy support, results of village autonomy are relatively good.Finally, this paper argues that well-functioning villager autonomy requires a reasonable governance unit. It will be difficult to form common interests and to take collective action if the governance unit is oversized, making villager autonomy become difficult to function. However, a reasonable governance unit will make it easier to form common interests and will make villager autonomy have a remarkable effect. Besides, it requires system safeguard and policy support to make reasonable governance unit operate effectively.