Study On Predicaments Of Triangle Relations Between Province,municipality And County In The Province-governing-county System And The Solving Mechanism

Reform of province-governing-county has caused fundamental changes of relationship between province, prefecture-level city and county from vertical relation to a triangle form. This new flat-structured relationship is conducive to improve the governing efficiency, speed of information transmission and release of development vitality of governments of each layer. However, conflicts between institutional innovations and the current system start arise with the deepening of reform. Both province-, municipality- and county-level governments in the triangle-structured relationship encounter increasing predicaments, such as the unreasonable large management range of the province, rising difficulties in supervising the municipality and county, lack of economic growth pole and so on. These lead to frequent conflicts between the province, municipality and county, which dramatically affect regional economic growth and further forward of the reform. This paper with an aim to explore the predicaments on triangle relations between province, municipality and county, takes Zhejiang Province, a typical pilot of the province-governing-county reform with rich experience as the case. By exploring the predicaments of triangle relations between province, municipality and county, this paper analyses reasons that cause these problems and establishes the solving mechanism.This paper mainly adopts literature research method, comparative analysis and case study with the application of the theory of fiscal decentralization, economic growth pole theory and local governance theory to analyze the problem. The paper divides into six parts. Part 1 focuses on the introduction of background, methods, theories related and literature review. Part 2 from the perspective of the financial system, administrative system, economic development and local governance analyses the content of triangle relationship between province, municipality and county and the practices of Zhejiang province. Part 3 mainly explores the relationship predicaments. Part 4 explores the reasons that cause these problems. Part 5 conducts the comparison between province-governing-county system adopted by Zhejiang and the municipality-governing-county system of Jiangsu and Guangdong. Part 6 established the solving mechanism.By analyzing the triangle relationship between the province, municipality, and county from four perspectives mentioned above, this study finds that(1) institutionalconflicts exists in triangle relationship between the province, municipality, and county,such as too wide management range of province and less restrictions on county power.(2) Predicaments of economic layout and cooperation includes that county boom hinders economic growth of municipality, and the lack of central city hampers the transmission and upgrading of county economy and the sluggish economic in municipality and county influence the regional competitiveness of the whole province.(3) Predicaments in local governance mainly include fragmentation of local governance and lack of will in trans-regional cooperation.The reasons that cause these problems mainly lie to the parallel running of financial system under province-governing-county reform and the administrative system under municipality-governing-county framework; the adaptation of one-size-fits-all approach of reform adopted by Zhejiang, and the fiscal competition that triggers economic fractures.By comparing the province-governing-county system adopted by Zhejiang and the municipality-governing-county system of Jiangsu and Guangdong, this paper learn from the Urban Economy Model of Jiangsu and Guangdong to help establish solving mechanism with regard to Zhejiang’s triangle relationship problems.To solve the problems, classification is the basic principle applied in institutional reforms. As for Zhejiang’s economic transition, the municipality-governing-county system should be adopted in strong cities to build regional economic poles and the province-governing-county system should be adopted in strong counties to fully release their economic vigor. And then the cooperative mechanism between the county and the municipality needs to be established so as to build cooperative relations between them.And in this process the transition of government functions and the deepening of economic institutions reforms are the core tasks.