On The Legal Construction Of Township Government

As a community-level government, the work of township and town government faces people directly.In accordance with the continued adjustment of our country’s law and policy, the function of township and town government has transformed from a all-around management type of government to a service-oriented one which delivers public services to society mainly. However, because of the broadness of the legacy regulation on the function of it and the pressure management system from top down, township and town government cannot full implement its due responsibilities while it has been beset by completing tasks from upper-level government. Function’s offside, apposition and absence problems still exist within lots of township and town.governments.The main problems within the legal construction of the township and town government are the weaknesses of the awareness of the rule of the law, the administration by the law, the restriction on the authority and capability of making scientific decisions. The root cause of the problems has positive and objective aspects. From positive aspect, it has not built up genuine awareness of law and the concept of the rule of law. From objective aspect, the material foundation of the law-based governance construction is not guaranteed under financial pressure; the authority and responsibility lose balance because the current law does not define the scope of the authority and responsibility of township and town government; The incomplete mechanism of function enforcement procedure and lack of policy guarantee on authority implementation result in the phenomenon of mal-conduct, misconduct and non-conduct; the incomplete mechanism of supervision results in the dysfunction of oversight from National People’s Congress, CPPCC and people. It is hard to administrate by law effectively because of the complexity of the legal environment in township and town.The Eighteenth National Party Congress and the fourth plenary sessions of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee has passed the "Decisions of the CPC Central Committee on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Promoting Rule of Law". Because township and town government has direct connection with people with functions of rural economy adjustment, social management, policy guidance and public services, legal construction is a requirement in promoting new countryside building, a fundamental way of protecting local stability and an important guarantee of building service-oriented government. The report of the 15th CPC National Congress has decided to make the rule of law and the building of a socialist country under the rule of law fundamental principle. In 1999, the rule of law was added to the Constitution formally. Since then, a lot of articles about legal construction of the country and community-level government, reform of the township and town government’s functions, legal construction of countryside society and countryside have been published. The author here explains how to improve the building of law-based township and town government in detail from her daily working experience. Firstly, how to improve legal system construction is the material foundation of building a law-based township and town government, which includes building a limited responsibility, a sustainable financial system, and a clear relationship between township and town government and villager’s committee. Secondly, implementation of administration under the rule of law is an important measure of building a law-based township and town government, which includes adjusting law enforcement entities, delegating more power of law enforcement to it, standardizing and implementing strictly law enforcement procedures and strengthening scientific and democratic decision system which provides law to go by in administration under the rule of law. Thirdly, the promotion of the awareness of the rule of law is the key prerequisite, which includes building up confidence in the rule of law, practicing the rule of law thought and protecting the authority of the law. Finally, strengthen supervision is the mechanism guarantee of improving the building of law-based township and town government. It includes building and improving transparency in government affairs system and performance rating and oversight mechanism.