Township Regime Operation In The Post-agricultural Tax Era:Efficiency And Legitimacy

The Institutional School of Organizational Sociology believes that organizations face two different environments: the technological environment and the institutional environment.The demands of the two environments on the organization are often contradictory.he technological environment requires that the organization be efficient,that is,organize production or operation according to the principle of maximization;the institutional environment requires that the organization obeys the “legitimate”mechanism,that is,adopts organizational forms and practices that are “widely accepted” in the institutional environment,regardless of these Whether the forms and practices are effective within the organization's internal operations.The legality mechanism not only restricts the behavior of the organization,but also helps the organization to improve its social status and gain social recognition.It is precisely under the multiple pressures of these two different environmental conditions that the organization is active.Pursuing the adaptation to the technological environment often leads to the neglect of the institutional environment.The adaptation to the institutional environment often competes with the internal production process for resources.The contradiction between these two conflicts and the corresponding countermeasures of the organization have led to a total organizational phenomenon.In the post-agricultural tax era,the township government,as a first-level political organization,also needs to face the technological and institutional environment.The technical environment requires the township government to complete the higher-level arrangements and its own set of objectives and tasks in a performance-appraisal year,in order to ensure its own operational efficiency;The institutional environment requires the township government to comply with the "legitimate" mechanism.Here,"legitimateness" refers not only to the role of the legal system but also to the influence of cultural institutions,social concepts,and social expectations on organizational behavior.The social ideas and social expectations faced by the township government often refer to the public products and public services it provides to meet the needs of farmers.The CPC Central Committee and the State Council require that the township and township governments must not only be streamlined and efficient in their operation,but also must improve their public service capabilities.The X(county level)municipal government promotes both efficiency and legitimacy by assessing the performance of townships.At the same time,Y town government and staff believe that their work can take into account both efficiency and legitimacy.Therefore,from the perspective of the government,the relationship between efficiency and legitimacy is consistent,andefficiency promotes the promotion of legitimacy.After conducting a six-month on-site investigation in Y town,the author found that there are various actions that affect efficiency in the actual operation of Y town,and the efficiency is reduced.At the same time,farmers also believe that the public services provided by the town government are far from enough.From the perspective of farmers,the legitimacy of Y town is declining.By synthesizing various viewpoints and positions,and through case analysis and analysis of influencing factors,we believe that the operation process of the township political power is neither as perfect as the government perspective thinks,but can also take into account both efficiency and legitimacy(which is also contrary to the theory of the institutional school).Nor is it as unbearable as the peasants perceive(after all,the development of the township is obvious to all).We have found that there is no relationship between efficiency and legitimacy that the institutional school talks about.The final conclusion of this paper is that the operating efficiency and legitimacy of Y town's regime in the post-agricultural tax era have declined together,and further discussion has been made on how to balance efficiency and legitimacy as much as possible.